The open vision : a study of psychic phenomena

THE OPEN VISION

A STUDY OF

PSYCHIC PHENOMENA

Class
Book

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Copyright N?_

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BOOKS BY HORATIO W. DRESSER

The Open Vision. A study of psychic phenom-
ena. The purpose of this book is to distin-
guish psychical phenomena from other kinds
of experience, and to point out the way be-
yond mere phenomena to clear knowledge of
the human spirit and the spiritual life.

A History of the New Thought Movement.
An important study of the mental healing
movement, by an authoritative writer who
knows his subject from the heart of it. It is
the first complete history of the subject, and
of its leaders and healers. The account it
gives of the more permanent, constructive
ideas embodied in this system of applied
metaphysical practice must make it helpful
to those seeking practical answers from it to
their own personal life problems.

The Spirit of the New Thought. "Dr. Dres-
ser, dean of New Thought, herein does a serv-
ice for the much-taxed general reader, who is
enabled by means of this collection of repre-
sentative papers to get his bearings and to
discriminate New Thought from Christian
Science and other allied 'movements/ " — Se-
wanee Review.

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

THE OPEN VISION

A STUDY OF PSYCHIC
PHENOMENA

BY
HORATIO W. DRESSER, Ph.D.

Author of "The Power of Silence," "On the

Threshold of the Spiritual World," "A

History of the New Thought

Movement," etc.

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

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COPTEIGHT, 1920

By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

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FOREWORD

JH

Interest in psychical phenomena has travelled
very far since the days of the first crude mani-
festations which led to modern spiritism. The
era of mere manifestations gave place to that
of books purporting to tell us about the spirit-
world and the wisdom of life on the other plane,
and that in turn led to the day of psychical re-
search with its long and patient investigations.
The great war brought us to another period.
There was not only greater desire than ever to
gain new light if possible on the nature of death
and the life beyond, but from the soldiers them-
selves on the battlefield there came evidences of
psychical visions and guidances. To meet the
new interest, books of many types have been is-
sued, so that psychical experience has become one
of the great subjects of the day in the world of
books. So many messages and teachings have
apparently come over the great border that none
of us has time to read them all. What next?

If we assume that the whole subject has passed
out of its preliminary stage and that we have
assured results at last, what use can we make
of these results? Granting the survival of iden-
tity, accepting spirit-return as established and

iv Foreword

spiritual communion as a fact of real experience,
what significance has all this for the individual,
for those who may not themselves have indulged
in direct experiments or had personal evidences
of spirit-return? Has a body of principles been
given us such that we may now adopt them and
endeavor to live by them, or are the various teach-
ings in such conflict that few of us can tell what to
believe? Should a person have faith in communi-
cations from the other world, is the believing atti-
tude right, or ought we to continue sceptical?

It would be claiming too much to undertake
to decide any of these matters for the general
public. But plainly we need to take the next
step, and those of us who have in a measure seen
our way through to conclusions and convictions
should help others still in a questioning attitude.
We may not be able to persuade any one to adopt
our view, yet we may greatly assist the investi-
gator and those who are heart -hungry by telling
how we came to believe in the reality of certain
psychical experiences while rejecting others. In-
deed we may hold that our own experiences were
given us that we might share their meanings and
values with those whose interests are similar.
And even if we should reject all mere phenomena
as doubtful there would still be the question of
the proper development of our own powers,
sometimes called "psychical."

Foreword

It is in this tentative yet on the whole hopeful
spirit that this book has been written. The point
of view advocated departs somewhat widely from
that of psychical research on the one hand, and
that of the average believer in messages from the
spirit-world on the other. Personal experience
and study have led me to believe in many matters
as perfectly normal and the information acquired
wholly natural, in contrast with the point of view
which tells us so much about the abnormal and
the supernormal. I have never been an investi-
gator in the usual sense, have not consulted me-
diums, have stood apart when others sought to
arouse my interest, and have for the most part
concerned myself with other matters. My train-
ing has been in philosophy and I have applied
the sceptical tests of the student who is deter-
mined not to be misled. All the more significant,
it seems to me, are the results to which experience
has led me. For granting that there is at the
present time unusual openness to the life beyond
and concerted effort on the other side to bring
certain teachings to us on this plane, one should
be far more impressed by what has come spon-
taneously than by any quest on our own part.
There ought to be a way to show us what is real
and a means of making clear what is true.

The point of view of this book is that when all
the evidence that can be gained through investi-

vi Foreword

gation or reading has come before the mind of
today, it still remains for the individual to learn
what is real and what is true for him. We are
not likely to be genuinely convinced one way
or the other until we too have had evidence.
Strictly speaking, nothing is proved until it has
been directly established for you and for me.
We must either have experience or come into
possession of principles such that we can tell
what is true, what false. If we could be so for-
tunate as to follow direct guidance all the way
along we might be spared the long process of
research.

For there surely is divine wisdom in the mat-
ter. Each of us is led along a certain pathway
and there is guidance for the path. If the time
has come for penetrating more deeply into psy-
chical reality, there is a sure way to find that
reality. The eager quest of hundreds and thou-
sands whose loved ones have left this world dur-
ing the war has apparently made it possible to
break down many barriers. Unexpectedly the
intense experience of life at the front has led to
the opening of the inner vision on the part of
soldiers. Some of these have gone from our
midst and they seem to be looking back. We on
our part have been led to be more responsive.
We have only to follow these leadings to the end
in order to come in sight of clear principles.

Foreword vii

Meanwhile there is every reason why you and I
should grow into the open vision, should long
without undue yearning, and listen without giv-
ing ear too intently.

The point of view of this book is neither ortho-
dox nor scientific, as these terms are usually un-
derstood. It is simply human. Those of us
who have been with people who are yearning and
with soldiers over seas have grown quite natu-
rally into this attitude. We had a splendid
chance "over there" to know and more intimately
to appreciate human nature in many of its most
genuinely attractive phases. There one came
nearer the hearts and minds of men in whom the
childhood of the world was in considerable degree
preserved unspoiled. One seemed to realize
from such relationships with the frank-hearted
men of the trenches what life might have been
on this earth if civilization could have kept the
first-hand realities of the human spirit. One saw
what Bergson meant when he graphically de-
scribed the nature and function of the intellect,
and then told us that creative evolution might
have proceeded differently, might have fostered
intuition. This vision of man's spiritual possi-
bilities gave one a desire to re-interpret life, to
go back in thought to the childhood of the race,
to recover the lost gifts and possessions of the
inner life.

viii Foreword

In our life at the front many of us found that
the traditions which hamper and the creeds which
keep men apart were set aside. One associated
with the Roman Catholic on the same friendly-
terms as with Protestant or Jew. One saw that
the simple-minded peasant had kept untainted
some of the beliefs and values of Christianity
which modern criticism has refined away into
"pale negations." One asked if it were not pos-
sible to look back of the Protestant Reformation,
back of all the churches, and in a way back of
the Bible itself, to see how men first came to
believe in the soul, in heaven, in a higher wisdom.
The undertaking would be difficult, for each of
us comes forward with a word of warning in
behalf of some out-worn creed. A dispassionate
study of human nature from the point of view of
inner spiritual experience is indeed difficult.
Yet this book has been written with the hope
that just such studies are possible, that many of
us care so little for organizations, or for any-
thing that doctrinaires may say or scientific critics
may invent, that there is reason to press forward
to learn for ourselves what is true, what is real.

While then many of us returned from the
other war-countries unsettled, unable to take up
our occupations in the same old way, we bore
within our spirits something very definite and
promising. There actually is a new dispensation

Foreword ix

in process. The war was part of it. The pres-
ent class struggle is another. The interest in
psychical phenomena is a third. The remarkable
unity attained by the Allies during 1918 was a
forerunner of the spirit of cooperation that is to
come. We have a right to believe that there is
such cooperation between the other life and this
as the world has never seen before. Those of
us who are ready can play a part. By so doing
we shall put ourselves in line with the constructive
forces. By so doing we may pass far beyond
the stage of mere questioning and mere investi-
gation into that of actual assimilation and actual
use. And why on the whole should we not be
free to acquire a philosophy of the relationship
of the two worlds? Why not take seriously the
teaching that man is a spirit already in the spirit-
ual world in his inmost nature, while at the same
time active in this world's affairs? Why should
we forever make concessions to materialism and
to orthodoxy? Why not be free spirits in quest
of truth?

This book is addressed at any rate to those
who are eager for personal evidences because
they have lost friends during the war, and to
those who are free to follow wherever the spirit
of truth may lead in these days of unrest. Its
point of view is unclassified. Its teaching is
eclectic, not in any sense sectarian. It appeals

Foreword

to the reader to think and believe for himself,
and to cultivate his own powers. This seems
like individualism, but it is the call of the new
age. It seems like undue emphasis on the inner
life, but we have been putting the wrong stress
on outward things. Well may we conclude to
press through to the deeper meanings of the new
dispensation, the age of the recovery of the open
vision and the realities which it discloses.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I The New Awakening . .... 1

II Psychical Experience 13

III Psychical Research . . 28

IV Methods of Communication 42

V The Awakening of Psychical Power . . 58

VI Spiritual Speech 75

VII Recent Literature 91

VIII The Seven Purposes 109

IX Principles of Interpretation . . . .123

X The Human Spirit 137

XI Difficulties and Objections . . . .155

XII Personal Experiences 171

XIII Direct Impressions 189

XIV Inner Perception 207

XV How to Know Inner Guidance .... 223

XVI A Doctrinal Objection ...... 239

XVII To a Mother ......... 255

XVIII The Future Life, I ......... . 266

XIX The Future Life, II 280

XX The Book of Life ....... 294

XXI The Inward Light . . . . . . .311

XXII Positive Values 325

THE OPEN VISION

THE NEW AWAKENING

One of the most popular and interesting chap-
ters in the Bible contains the significant state-
ment that " the word of the Lord was precious
in those days," and then it gives as the reason
the fact that " there was no open vision." The
young Samuel, whose spiritual history follows,
was unacquainted at that time with the inner
voice or vision. When he heard the inner voice
he mistook it for that of Eli. Being obedient
and not by any means troubled with modern dif-
ficulties over auditory illusions, he called out
" Here am I." Apparently he not only heard
the voice but experienced some sort of vision
which he was presently persuaded to describe.
Others knew the conditions of seership under
which a prophet arises, and Samuel was encour-
aged to give expression to his experience. The
experience was no doubt genuine, however it may
have been interpreted in accordance with tradi-
tion.

1

The Open Vision

The more enlightened at least knew the dif-
ference between one who spoke from first-hand
contact with spiritual realities through experi-
ence, and one who merely repeated the beliefs
of the fathers with priestly emphasis. Plainly
the word of the Lord was just then largely a
tradition so far as immediate vision was con-
cerned, but a tradition which looked back to that
golden time when the inner eyes of men were still
open. Doctrine was needed to take the place of
direct experience and enable the priests to go
through the motions; hence doctrine was highly
esteemed. But then as now doctrine was a make-
shift. The written word was needed for the
same reason. Yet though precious it was a sub-
stitute. The open vision could never have come
to occupy so great a place in regretful memories
of a bygone time had it not been a genuine
reality, a gift of surpassing value. The great-
est men of the spirit were doubtless those who
heard the inner word, although there may have
been little appreciation of the values of that word.
Far more important than any effort to secure
a hearing for doctrine would have been the ques-
tion, What is the open vision and why was it
ever lost?

The tradition still prevails in some quarters
that man was so created as to be able while liv-
ing on earth to speak with angels and spirits,

The New Awakening 3

to enjoy the open vision and behold what is real
in the spiritual world. The same tradition tells
us that in time men became so immersed in
worldly interests as to care for little else, hence
that the way was closed. This was not the " fall
of man " as commonly understood, but the natu-
ral coming in of interests from the outside and
the no less natural fading away of the inner
vision. With those who hold that man is in
reality a spirit, always in intimate relation with
the spiritual world whatever his absorption in
the things of the flesh and the world, this idea
of a golden time in the childhood of the race is
far more than a tradition. Indeed, the sure con-
viction follows that whenever worldly interests
sufficiently recede and man regains interior re-
ceptivity the way to the open vision is once more
disclosed. There are signs that we have entered
such a period in our day.

The spiritual history of the race leads us to
believe that there must indeed have been some-
thing like this directness of speech and this open-
ness, otherwise there would never have been the
great periods of awakening and iUumination.
The sacred books of India, Palestine and other
lands must have had sufficient causes. They
cannot be explained on the mere supposition that
doctrines were handed down from the myth-
making period and formulated by those in power

4 The Open Vision

who wished to give them priestly authority.
There have always been periods of relative quies-
cence and times of re-awakening. Naturally
enough the priests and their devotees have given
their attention chiefly to doctrines and traditions
rather than to the realities of inner experience
which led to these. But this need not blind us
to the fact that there have been seers and prophets
who enjoyed the open vision. Had it not been
for these and the protests they uttered against
doctrine and priestly authority the world would
be much further from spiritual reality than it
is. True psychology teaches us that experience
precedes belief, formulas, rituals, dogma. There
has always been a good reason why men wor-
shiped and believed and prayed. No mere ex-
planation urged from without can take the place
of spiritual interpretation and appreciation from
within.

To give thought to the vision and its possibili-
ties, in contrast with the periods when the word
of the Lord was precious and there was only tra-
dition concerning the open vision, is to realize
that there is an important chapter in human his-
tory from the dawn of civilization up to the great
war which we have scarcely read. The Bible,
for example, is full of references to direct speech
with angels. The messages and the guiding
presences of angels seem to have played a regular

The New Awakening

part in the inner history, and were apparently so
regarded and taken as matters of course.
Prophetic dreams were given on momentous oc-
casions. There were visions that disclosed the
way. One might readily infer that all divine
guidance or revelation came through mediation
to man, and that there were several ways in which
the text of the scriptures was given. To take
the Bible with entire seriousness is to have these
facts on our hands for explanation. But the
same is true concerning the sacred books of other
lands.

As a result of modern criticism it has become
customary to pass by this inner chapter. We
now relegate angels to the sphere of myths, hav-
ing ceased to believe in unique beings with wings
who never lived on any earth. Or we sceptically
reason them away as mere " good thoughts."
Sometimes too we appear to have classified them
once for all among the wonders or mysteries of
the past along with the " miracles " which were
purely things of the past — until the modern
interest in spiritual healing taught us that the
theologians were mistaken. We have for the
most part preferred to evade the matter rather
than think it out. The Church too has frowned
upon searching inquiry.

When we read the Bible as a whole and try
to account for it as a whole, we must admit that

6 The Open Vision

in the actual text angels play a significant part.
The great idea throughout is the guiding pres-
ence of God. The central questions pertain to
the wisdom which the book contains, hence to
the idea of " revelation.' ' Yet when we open our
eyes to everything mentioned which is said to
operate in connection with the divine presence,
we find that from Genesis to the book of Reve-
lation either the instrumentality of angels or the
open vision on the part of men possessing seer-
ship is strongly emphasized. We can no more
neglect these means of communication or expres-
sion if we would be loyal to the whole story than
we can fail to consider the imagery or symbolism
native to the Hebrew mind in which the great
spiritual truths are clothed. When we read that
" there was no open vision " at a certain period
the reference is to a real spiritual condition.
When Balaam the son of Beor is spoken of as
" the man whose eyes are open " there is refer-
ence to a real fact concerning spiritual vision.
When Elisha prays that the eyes of the young
man may be " open " an actual kind of interior
vision is in his mind. And by implication these
and other passages give us a more direct clue
to the interpretation of psychical phenomena than
the manifestations of modern spiritism. For the
decisive consideration is not the alleged projec-
tion or materialization of spiritual realities, but

The New Awakening

the open vision by which those possessing it actu-
ally see these realities. So to be caught up into
the seventh heaven with Paul the Apostle, or to
be " in the spirit on the Lord's day " with John
the seer whose visions recounted in the Revelation
have so long baffled the world, would be to exer-
cise an actual power, to be quickened to see and
to feel with him. This subject may be consid-
ered apart from all topics usually involving doc-
trinal controversies.

It is difficult indeed to put aside the influences
of modern scepticism concerning angels and the
spiritual powers of man, and try in reconstructive
imagination to put ourselves back into the life
and times of those who enjoyed the open vision.
The very idea of a golden age when men walked
and talked with heavenly beings, when men re-
ceived truth by interior revelation, has been dis-
carded as a myth. The philosophy of evolution
has persuaded the modern mind that everything
golden is yet to come. It tells us nothing about
a period of spiritual innocence and open-minded-
ness. Then too modern psychological criticism
has refined away nearly everything of a psy-
chical nature, and we seem in duty bound to ex-
plain even the spiritual life on the basis of the
bodily states which accompany it. We have
been put into an attitude of cold scrutiny. Psy-
chology is so interested in the study of physical

8 The Open Vision

sensation that it never gets around to the subject
of intuition. We have been taught to classify as
"abnormal" many of the best experiences in
human life. We have put down our highest
wisdom as "supernormal." The normal is thus
reduced to the dead-level of experiences involv-
ing seven or eight physical senses. It therefore
never occurs to us that it might once have been
usual to enjoy the open vision of spiritual reali-
ties, and that it might now be natural and right
to converse with angels and spirits.

Yet, as in the case of the little Samuel, we have
little children ever with us and we might discern
evidences of normal spiritual powers disclosing
higher realities. We might learn from a more
intimate study of their minds that in sensitive
children especially there is a side to their nature
properly definable as psychical. We might begin
at last to see why it is that children at the point
of death have described things seen in the spirit-
ual world. We have only to follow the inner
history of children round about us, from their
early years through the period of the higher edu-
cation and of contact with the world, when they
begin to yield more fully to the world's entice-
ments, in order to see the period of openness
gradually giving place to a state in which the
external life becomes largely triumphant. What
still takes place all around us undoubtedly took

The New Awakening 9

place under other external conditions in the child-
hood of the race. In each of us there are vestiges
of this period in our childhood, vestiges which
might be recovered. Life in a sense is a constant
struggle to return to this the inmost part of our
nature, in contrast with the effort of the external
life to keep us absorbed in the things of the
world. Nearly every one succumbs either to the
enticements and demands of outward things or
to some creed which denies the possibility of di-
rect spiritual experience. But we have all
known at least a few individuals who have kept
unspoiled some of the qualities of this golden age
of their youth.

There are signs that we have recently entered
one of the great periods when men enjoy the open
vision. We might deny every one of the mani-
festations of modern spiritism and yet have as
many reasons for this statement. Psychical re-
search, using the same persistent methods of anal-
ysis and criticism by which the triumphs of mod-
ern science have been won, has cleared the way
for such a belief. But the great war accom-
plished far more at a leap than research could
have gained in a generation. There have been
too many visions of real value to deny them all.
Too many messages purporting to come from
soldiers who have "gone West" have stirred us
into belief. Too many of us are spiritually hun-

10 The Open Vision

gry with a hunger that has been quickened from
within. We cannot return to the old scepticism.
Everywhere there is eagerness for new light on
death and the life beyond. Never in history have
so many people received communications seem-
ing to come from the spiritual world. Never
before have such numbers of people come to be-
lieve in the reality of communion with the so-
called dead. All these are signs of greater ac-
tivity in the spiritual world itself, of more effort
to get messages across. We may be exceedingly
doubtful about the mere phenomena of psychical
experiences, but we cannot deny these spiritual
signs.

It is plainly not a time when a few seers or
prophets may be expected to stand out above
their f ellowmen because of superiority in the open
vision. As in all other fields of human endeavor,
the powers of the individual at large are under
consideration. It is a time of diffusion of every
sort of knowledge. There are no evidences that
we are ever to return to the leadership of a few
men of genius or to membership in a few or-
ganizations supposably having a monopoly of
spiritual knowledge. It is no longer a question
of authority but of truth. Every one who is
interiorly guided and quickened is free to follow
where the inner light may lead, to do his part in
recovering the golden age. What is needed is

The New Awakening 11

not a creed but enlightenment, not theology but
a universal philosophy of the interior life verifi-
able by inner experience.

Moreover, new books aje coming from the
press thick and fast in response to this new eager-
ness for light. The subject of psychical phenom-
ena has become one of the great literary topics
of the day. Books abound no doubt which con-
tain scant evidences of spiritual truth or spiritual
reality. The greater the number of books the
more need for searching scrutiny. But the sig-
nificant thing is that they are being written and
being read. One can no longer classify all books
on spiritism or psychical phenomena under two
or three heads. They vary all the way from
crude attempts to describe the spiritual world
to reasonable expositions of principles which are
worthy of our most serious consideration.
Prophecies abound and most of them are obvi-
ously wide of the mark, but there have been some
remarkable prognostications of the war.

The most impressive advance, no doubt, in
comparison with books purporting to contain
messages from the great beyond of a generation
or so ago, is in what some one has called " team-
work " as applied to spiritual things. Groups of
enlightened spirits in the world beyond are ap-
parently seeking communication with those most
open on our plane. It is no longer a mere ques-

12 The Open Vision

tion of proving spirit-return or establishing the
work of psychical interchange on a scientific basis.
Concerted effort is now being made to bring to
us the teachings we most need for immediate
application in this practical world. The ques-
tion of the means of communication, for example,
through mediumship or the pencil, has become
wholly secondary. The fact that so many people
are trying the ouija-board and the pencil is also
secondary. There is something in store for us
very much higher and better than these things.
The time will come when we will no longer seek
mere outward signs or agencies, but will look
for direct evidences and interior impressions.
This will lead to widespread interest in the open
vision and the opening of the interior sight of
numbers of people. The psychical awakening is
incidental to the spiritual re-awakening. This is
truly a new dispensation that is upon us.

II

PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE

The word "psychic" is on every lip today*
Yet there are many who have no clear idea of the
nature of the psychical realm in relation to the
spiritual and physical. The word seems to cover
the whole range from credulity to science. There
is a tendency to confuse external phenomena with
inner experience. It is well to draw certain dis-
tinctions that we may mark out the field of inner
experience in general and within that field dis-
tinguish what is psychical.

In the larger sense the psychical is the whole
sphere of mental life in contrast with the physi-
cal. In psychology a psychical fact is whatever
is directly experienced by the mind in contrast
with what science tells us by way of explanation
of what we feel and otherwise perceive. Thus
the fact of pleasure or pain is psychical, while
the science that describes it and supplies what
is lacking to make our" knowledge complete is
psychology. But this usage is too general.

In popular thought a psychical experience is
mysterious or questionable. A person known as
a "psychic" or "sensitive" is one supposed to

13

14 The Open Vision

■ — — - i

possess uncanny or supernormal power, such as
clairvoyance, "second sight" the ability to read
another's mind, or to fall into a trance. There
is a tendency to classify all phenomena bordering
upon spiritism as occult or abnormal. But this
may be chiefly because we have tended to push
these matters aside instead of marching straight
up to them. We shall make headway if we now
undertake to describe and explain them in the
light of reason.

There are phenomena indeed which we may
always regard as abnormal. Thus the mesmeric
or hypnotic sleep although psychical is an ex-
perience against which we rebel in behalf of sound
individuality and the cultivation of the intellect
and the will. We object also to mediumship and
disapprove of trances. Yet back of all this that
is unsound lies the fact that many of us are to
a greater or lesser degree sensitive, susceptible
to impressions, mental atmospheres and guid-
ances which seem to bring us higher wisdom.
What we protest against is undue use of this the
sensitive side of our nature. There undoubtedly
is a perfectly normal use of our psychical powers.

We may perhaps define more carefully what
we mean by psychical experience if we compare
the psychical with other phases of our life.
When we speak of worship, prayer, pious ser-
vice in almsgiving, ministering to the sick, the

Psychical Experience 15

widowed and fatherless, we have in mind a dis-
tinct part of our individual and social existence,
namely our religious life. In the best sense of
the term "Christian" we mean by religion not
only outward observances but personal piety, the
response of the heart, a life according to the creed
we profess in putting love for God and man above
self-love. The word "psychic" does not enter
in unless we associate with our piety something
pertaining to the interior channels through which
the experiences of the heart are said to come, un-
less we refer to other matters than direct com-
munion with God or conversation through
spoken words with men.

When we consider mysticism as a special phase
of this life of the heart, however, we realize
that the psychical always enters in. For the
typical mystic is one who emphasizes inner ex-
perience as the primary means of knowing spir-
itual reality. The mystic may not hear voices
or indulge in any activities in connection with
spiritism, yet he surely has visions, he possesses
psychical sensitivity to an unusual degree, and is
likely to experience the ecstasy or uplift which
leads mystics to believe they have direct com-
munion with God. We fail to understand the
mystic unless we take his psychical experiences
into account. The mystic is in part a seer. He
enjoys the open vision in some degree. His in-

16 The Open Vision

ner life might be studied as a clue to the reality
of psychical experience, apart from any partic-
ular belief such as spiritual pantheism which
springs from his visions.

We might say that psychical experience is a
phase of the whole spiritual life. But when-
ever you speak of the spiritual life nowadays you
must explain what you mean, for you might
mean spiritism or you might be utterly opposed
to it. A person might be a psychic or sensitive
and not by any means "spiritual" as most of us
understand the term. We would all like to be
sanely spiritual and grow in insight. We think
of the spiritual in the best religious sense as im-
plying a divine standard. The clue to the in-
terpretation of the psychical must be spiritual,
we insist.

The term "psychic" has been applied to the
whole range of phenomena inclusive of material-
izations, raps, automatic writing, table-tipping,
planchette-writing, the ouija-board, clairvoy-
ance, clairaudience, telepathy, psychometry,
visions, apparitions, and the like. But we must
distinguish between psychical or inner experience
and external events, things or methods of ac-
tivity connected with such experience. A rap
is a physical happening if objectively actual at
all. If nothing physical occurs, it is merely an
auditory illusion. So the tipping of a table is a

Psychical Experience 17

physical occurrence. An experiment with a
ouija-board is psychical only so far as the evi-
dence compels us to look beyond unconscious
muscular action or automatism for an explana-
tion. The motions of a pencil held receptively
in the hand may be purely automatic and may
have no inner or psychical accompaniment what-
ever. What is psychical in connection with any
of these phenomena when visible things are used
is the inner experience of receiving impressions
or the unwitting response to the activities of one's
own subconsciousness. The inner impressions
or responses are the psychical parts of the phe-
nomena. This is probably always somewhat
complex when, for example, the recipient con-
tributes the requisite sensitivity and willingness
to participate in the experience, in so far as the
external memory is drawn upon, also the lan-
guage that chances to be in one's mind as a whole,
conscious and subconscious. If we could in all
cases dispense with the external means, such as
the use of a pencil or a board, what would be left
would be the series of impressions with the feel-
ings or words conveyed by means of these through
the external memory.

We must distinguish between the inner or
psychical reality and its associates or appear-
ances, that is, the mere phenomena. There may
be both outward associates, such as a tipping-

18 The Open Vision

table or a moving pencil; and inward associates
subject to misinterpretation or illusion. Thus
an inner voice might seem to be heard outside
when no sound is produced, yet the inner voice
might be profoundly real. Thus a spiritual
vision might have mystical associates round about
a very genuine religious experience. Interpre-
tations may vary and the names attached to an
experience may be different, just as a vision be-
held on a battle-field is variously interpreted and
named by soldiers of various nationalities or
faiths. An acute psychology would tell us what
element in each case is inwardly real and this
inner reality would be psychical.

The question of the abnormal elements of in-
ner experience pertains to the given individual
and is another problem, referring to the state of
a person's health, for example, the presence or
absence of a high degree of intellect offsetting
or fostering the emotions. Psychical experience
may be said to give us "supernormal' ' informa-
tion, that is, information over and above that of
our physical senses, but only because we know
so little about the total environment of the
human spirit. We may come to see that every
normal individual regularly receives information
or guidance wrongly classified as supernormal.
It is wholly normal to be a spiritual being. It
is perfectly normal to live in the spiritual world

Psychical Experience 19

and in the natural world at the same time. It is
entirely normal and desirable to receive guid-
ances from the spiritual world. It is in every
way desirable to acquire wisdom from the other
world by which to live in this — if it come accord-
ing to divine order. The essential is knowledge,
insight, intelligence in the use of wisdom from a
truly superior source.

We may illustrate by telepathy or thought-
transference. By this is meant direct commu-
nication between one mind and another other-
wise than through the organs of speech or other
physical means. It may involve the mere action
of one mind on another or may also include de-
finite words. Sometimes there is spontaneous
transference, that is, without pre-arrangement
or a direct act of will. Again, there is experi-
mental transference under precise conditions as
to time and receptivity. But the term has also
been extended to include subconscious acquisi-
tion of memories from the minds of others present
or absent. Thus a psychically inclined person
may unwittingly read from another's mind
thoughts which purport to come from spirits.
A medium may draw on the minds of people
present without intending to do so. Our minds
may contribute subject matter without our con-
sent. The tendency at present is to push this
explanation as far as possible and to refrain from

20 The Open Vision

belief in the reality of a spirit-message if one can.
However that may be, we note that telepathic
experience implies psychical power. None of us
knows to what extent we may give and receive
similar thoughts.

According to theosophy, telepathy includes the
projection of "thought-forms" from one person
to another. This projection involves the idea
of etheric substance or force vibrating between
human beings, as in wireless telegraphy. What-
ever the interpretation put upon the experience,
we ought properly to say that it is not thought
that is transmitted but rhythm or vibration arous-
ing an equivalent or corresponding thought, as
we shall see more clearly in another chapter.
What is implied on the part of the sender is
power to direct the mind towards another at a
distance. What is implied on the recipient's
part is a psychical sensitive-plate capable of re-
ceiving rhythms or vibrations which set up equiv-
alent thoughts. For my psychical state is al-
ways just my inner state, it does not travel.
Your psychical state is just your inner state,
it does not become an outer state. Granting
that thought-interchange is the regular speech
in the spiritual world, it is the normal and most
direct mode of communication between any and
all spirits whether still in this world or out of it.

Psychical Experience 21

Telepathy may be called the universal psychical
language. w

The ability to read another's mind wittingly
or unwittingly is intimately akin to the power
known as clairvoyance or second sight. This
power was originally attributed to persons in a
mesmeric sleep by which they were supposed to
discern objects concealed from sight or to see
what happened at a distance. Mediums in a
supposed trance were found to possess the same
power. Some operators who experimented with
mesmeric subjects found that they too had this
power of interior vision, hence that the surrender
to hypnosis or a trance was not necessary.
Clairvoyance is in fact dependent on neither
spirits nor exceptional mental states. It is
simply perception at a distance when this inner
seeing cannot be explained by reference to an-
other mind, when not due to mere thought-trans-
ference. It may involve reading another's mind
at a distance or the perceiving of distant events.
It readily runs over into what we vaguely call
the prophetical faculty or sixth sense. It may
include visions, hence it readily leads to mysti-
cism. But while some who are psychically in-
clined have the power to "see things" others
merely feel or discern them without the seeing.
It is akin to intuition, a word which fortunately

22 The Open Vision

we are never afraid of. Intuition underlies any
number of efforts to read character, any number
of clues which we spontaneously follow and re-
gard as sane and worth while. At its best clair-
voyance is inseparable from intuition and the
open vision.

Thus too clairaudience or clear-hearing implies
an inner power or spiritual sense akin to the
physical sense of hearing. One may apparently
hear another's voice with all the clearness of
spoken utterance when no other person present
hears a sound. A person at a distance may be
thinking of the recipient with a half -uttered de-
sire to summon him or a longing to communicate
by some more direct means. Thus the experience
on the sender's end may be an excellent instance
of spontaneous transfer. One need not doubt
the reality of the clear-hearing on the part of the
recipient just because it is accompanied by an
illusion that the voice is external and physical.
There is a corresponding experience of inner
hearing and sometimes of speaking in the case
of real psychical communications. That is, one
may experience the motor-impulse but may not
speak, one may seem to hear a sound but become
immediately aware that it is a thought arousing
a motor-associate. That a real psychical experi-
ence may be accompanied by a motor-impulse
need not surprise us at all. The point is that the

Psychical Experience 23

psychical experience on our part involves the
possession of an interior or spiritual sense. We
possess various spiritual senses and these corre-
spond with the physical organs of sense.

Every person possesses a "sphere" or mental
atmosphere which like the odor of a rose dis-
closes the nature and conditions of the source
from which it comes. We unwittingly exchange
many sorts of influence through our spheres.
Those of us who are sensitive know the differ-
ences between one presence and another, and we
grow in inner discernment or intuition, well
aware that some people are akin, some not. To
be singled out as "clairvoyant" is to possess the
same power in greater degree. Some have
learned to depend on this visualizing intuition so
that it has become a regular means of discerning
the mental and physical states and conditions
of people. Apparently we should all accustom
ourselves to the conception of the human spirit
as normally possessing these inner powers.

To take up the subject of apparitions and
other physical phenomena' would be to study the
associates of psychical experience and raise the
whole question of illusions and delusions. A
credulous mind though desirably psychical may
generate experiences that are objectively unreal.
A "psychic" with mystic tendencies may project
pictures and other imagery because of the ten-

24 The Open Vision

dencies 'of that type of mind. These external
matters have been before the world for a long
time. We are all cautious. What is now needed
is acuter knowledge of the psychical background,
the inner core of reality.

Note, for example, the difference between al-
leged messages coming from spirits by the in-
strumentality of table-tipping, the ouija-bdard
or automatic writing, and messages coming
through direct inner impression. The physical
instrument has apparently been used to arouse
the recipient to the possibility of receiving
thoughts by direct impression. Thereupon the
use of material means has been given up and the
great inner world has begun to receive attention.
Others of us were fortunate enough to begin with
direct impressions and so have not resorted to
physical means save perhaps to help people to
break away from them. There must always be
direct impression behind the mere phenomena
whenever the experience is real, whether or not
the participants are aware of it. This after all
is the real thing. We may throw the material
accompaniment out of account and give ourselves
over to a study of the processes going on in the
mind, knowingly or unknowingly.

By psychical experience then we mean a kind
of inner experience taking place because man
is a spirit with interior senses, powers of talking,

Psychical Experience 25

hearing, seeing, discerning from spheres, from
minds, from spirits, in the spiritual world as well
as in the natural. If we were interiorly awake
we would know that we have these powers and
would look to them first as guides. Partly
asleep as we are, absorbed if not imprisoned in
physical things, we need to be aroused. The
form which psychical experiences assume when
they come to awaken us depends upon the type
of person. Psychical experience may take on
successively higher forms as we proceed. It is
incumbent upon us to discover the real inner ex-
perience in each case, to seek its meaning and to
distinguish it from its associates.

It is out of the question to judge of the real-
ity and value of inner experience either by refer-
ence to the outward associates or by the char-
acter of the recipient known as a "psychic." We
need not be at all surprised to learn that speakers
and writers of a high degree of refinement are
open to help through psychical experience. It
is a question of the point of view of inner experi-
ence with its sources and values, the results to
which it leads.

Inner experience is what I come to know about
when I learn in some degree the difference be-
tween mind and brain, between consciousness
and subconsciousness, between what I contribute
from my personality and character and what is

26 The Open Vision

from conscience, from God and from other men.
I am unable to explain such experiences by refer-
ence to things and events outside of me as if I
were a mere automaton with thoughts and feel-
ings only apparently coming from myself. Nor
am I able to explain away such experiences as
if wholly produced within me by beings outside.
I am a real participant. I may become as
acutely intellectual as I like and still find that
these inner experiences are untouched by my
sceptical acumen. My experiences may continue
while I am engaged in the usual daily occupa-
tions, in every way vigorously normal. There is
no necessary conflict between such experiences
and what we call "sound sense." Such experi-
ences need not separate a person from the social
world. As a social being, a person has inner and
psychical relationships as well as external relation-
ships. In the inner world we are all the more in-
timately "members one of another." If I would
know myself as an individual in the profounder
sense of the word I must understand these interior
relationships. For in the inner world as well as
in my external social life I have my affinities and
dislikes, I am attracted or I am repelled, I close
the door or I open it. For better or worse I ac-
cept or reject all matters of moment on the basis
of my inner preferences. Fortunate indeed am
I if aware of the personal equation in this its more

Psychical Experience 27

intimate sense, if I possess a standard such that
I discern the psychical in relation to the spiritual.
Well too for me if I am led to keep my spirit open,
that I may grow into appreciation of the real
sources of religious experience. For I may then
classify the psychical element of experience in its
proper place, and help my fellow-men to make
the same classification.

We conclude then that psychical experience
has no necessary connection with spiritualism or
any form of occultism. In fact, we conclude
that the psychical element of the inner life is in
itself neutral or non-committal. It may be com-
bined with any conceivable assemblage of human
powers, in any temperament, in connection with
any kind of belief in any age or nation. It is
simply an element or aspect of inner human ex-
perience. The same spiritual senses or powers
are used in any case, from the lowest to the high-
est type, and to condemn the psychical unquali-
fiedly would be to condemn our entire spiritual
nature. It is a question of the type of person,
the degree of intelligence, the use which is made
of psychical power, the enlightenment in the
given instance. In the psychical as such there
is nothing to fear. What plays havoc is misin-
terpretation and misuse. We are capable of
coming into clear light and seeing the true mean-
ing and the true values.

Ill

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

We have now to consider whether the re-
searches of those who have employed modern
critical methods of investigation have brought
us the evidences and standards we need to deter-
mine the value of psychical experiences. Doubt-
less we would all agree that the contributions of
psychical research are highly important. Before
the days of such research there was no general
effort to discover the facts of experience apart
from a particular type of belief such as spiritual-
ism or theosophy. We did not then know how
very large a percentage of men and women have
had at least a few experiences in the course of a
life-time which might be put down on the scien-
tific list as psychical. Science had for the most
part ignored the whole field of phenomena bor-
dering on spiritism. The churches had little
definite teaching to give, save perhaps to warn
the public against communications through
mediums. The founders of the Society for
Psychical Research literally created a field for
investigation by being willing to inquire into all
phenomena of a psychical nature for truth's sake.

28

Psychical Research 29

Moreover, its greatest contribution to psycho-
logical theory, Mr. Myer's view of our deeper
nature called by him "the subliminal self," has
greatly enriched our psychological knowledge.
Under the name "subconscious" we have all come
to take interest in this part of our nature lying
below the threshold of consciousness and to make
allowances for it in our thought and in our inter-
pretations.

Some of us have followed the development of
psychical research with great interest since its
beginnings in America in the acute work of
Richard Hodgson, and the suggestive tolerance
and interest of Professor James. In the early
years thought-transference had not yet been
scientifically proved, but when it was satisfac-
torily established on a scientific basis the tendency
was to explain every alleged spirit-communica-
tion by reference to it. There are devotees of
psychical research today who believe that all such
communications can be so explained. Next
came the acceptance of the idea of spirit-return
after persistent effort to detect fraud or illusion
in the work of mediums like Mrs. Piper. The
results were better after this idea was accepted,
for an interrupting doubt was removed. Con-
vincing evidence of spirit-return, of the persis-
tence of identity after death has been obtained,
and people who have had no direct psychical ex-

30 The Open Vision

periences of their own have come to believe in the
reality of spirit-communications. Furthermore
there have been some remarkable evidences capa-
ble of manifold proof in the case of messages
given in part through one medium and verified
or completed by "cross correspondence" through
another. Such evidences are now before the
public in the works of Sir. W. F. Barrett, Pro-
fessor Hyslop and other well known writers on
psychical research, as well as in the reports of
the English Society.

Some of us have expressed impatience that the
work of the Society was so deliberate with such
meagre results at first. We have looked for
more conclusions. We expected more light on
the nature of the life after death. We awaited
inspirational teachings. But, as a member of
the Society has explained, the Society for Psy-
chical Research stands for investigations, not con-
clusions. A majority of its members now believe
in thought-transference and many believe in
spirit-return. There is a great advantage in
limiting the inquiry to the effort to establish the
persistence of identity, and apparently trivial
facts in connection with efforts to prove spirit-
return have real value. We have all profited
by the investigation. We need not stop where
this research leaves off. We are sure to benefit
by reacting upon it.

Psychical Reseaech 31

Professor Hyslop's recent book, "Contact
with the Other World," may be taken as an illus-
tration of the values and limitations of such re-
search. The author is himself convinced of the
reality of spirit-communication through medi-
ums. But he takes his readers carefully over
the whole field from ancient times, discusses
telepathy, also the processes of communications,
and gives strong evidences in favor of messages
from prominent men such as Professor James
and Dr. Isaac Funk who were interested in psy-
chical research before they left this world. The
author also discusses such questions as reincarna-
tion, obsession and mediumship. In brief, one
has a complete view of the psychical realm as the
man of science regards it. Some of the most
prominent of the early members of the Society
have now passed to the other life, and apparently
their work there is being carried on in much the
same way as when here, save that they are now
in the position of spirits desiring to communicate.
We seem actually to have bridged the chasm and
to have a view of psychical research as carried
on in both worlds.

When we have finished the book and have
seen by what process of reasoning the author
has been led to believe that there is satisfactory
evidence for the survival of consciousness after
death, where have we arrived? How does it

32 The Open Vision

leave the question of psychical experience for you
and me? Shall we say that we are convinced
too? Or is an argument based on the evidences
which have convinced others still mere intellec-
tual testimony awaiting confirmation?

One must admit that many difficulties have
been cleared away. The author has satisfac-
torily explained some of the confusions which
have made it hard to get messages over. He is
well aware of the complexities under which a
spirit operates when trying to communicate and
of the obstacles on this side. One questions
whether any one could have become so intimately
aware of the conditions and difficulties unless the
experiences in question had somehow been very
real.

For example, definite light is thrown on the
means of communicating ideas from spirits which
reduce themselves to a single process. There
are to be sure two general forms of communica-
tion, sensory and motor, corresponding to the
two channels known to all of us whereby the
mind is related to the physical world. In the
sensory field clairvoyance is most in evidence.
But the voices heard are as real as the visions
seen. Whatever the sensory form, whether per-
taining to sight, touch, hearing, smelling or
tasting, or even in the case of emotional experi-
ences, all are reducible to the same type, "the

Psychical Research 33

pictographic process." This process means that
the communicating spirit succeeds in eliciting in
the subject or medium a sensory phantasm or
representation of his thought. This process of
mental picturing in the subject's mind then leads
to the several well known means of expression,
for example, through automatic writing. The
subject does not necessarily draw pictures and
may not be aware of seeing any mental pictures,
but this is the underlying process preceding the
expression of the message through spoken or
written words. The psychical experience in
brief consists of the receiving of mental pictures
impressed on the mind by the communicator and
the translation of these into words which repre-
sent the imagery. The direct means of com-
munication is through the subliminal or subcon-
scious region of the subject's mind. The pan-
oramic stream of images transmitted from the
communicator may undergo some abbreviation
or interpretation in the mind of the subject,
hence there may be confusion and difficulty in
the transmission.

"Though we can only name it without describ-
ing the intimate nature of the process, we can
understand that it makes communication more
intelligible than does the study of the mechanical
devices or methods of communication. We are
nearer the heart of the problem when we are

34 The Open Vision

able to recognize a psychological process in it.
We do not know in detail all that goes on, but
when we can conceive that a mental picture in
the mind of the communicator is transmitted,
perhaps telepathically, to the psychic or to the
control; even though we do not know how this
occurs, we can understand why the message
takes the form that it does in the mind of the
psychic and why the whole process assumes the
form of a description of visual, or a report of
auditory images. The whole process of facts is
thus systematized as a single process, whose spe-
cific form of transmission is determined by the
sense through which it is expressed.'' *

There is no reason then for assuming that the
whole process comes from the communicating
spirit and that we must prove this in order to
show that the medium is honest. Popular
thought fails to take full account of the process
of receiving and translating going on below the
threshold in the subject. We overlook the fact
that there is necessarily such a process, just as in
sense-perception all our acquaintance with the
natural world is obtained through the cooperation
of our own organism. But when we understand
that there is a cooperative process going on in
subconsciousness in all cases whatever, and when
we are able to conceive of this as pictographic on
the inner side and as expressing itself through

i Page 117.

Psychical Research 35

writing, speech, etc., on the outer side, we have
a way to make the whole experience of communi-
cating intelligible.

We already know about mental images. We
know too that there was a primitive form of lan-
guage employed by the ancient Egyptians and
by the Indians which consisted of pictographs.
Indeed we have at least a general idea of the
whole language of correspondence once widely
employed, that is, the representation or por-
trayal of ideas by means of pictures, images,
forms of speech, symbols. We have direct clues
to this correspondence in the case of our own
mental pictures which are compact ways of put-
ting before the mind the ends of action, the inter-
ests we propose to realize. These mental images,
we know, precede and lead to action, that is, our
motor images. What is more natural than that
a spirit communicating with a mind in the flesh
should convey through a succession of mental
pictures ideas which can take form through
words in the recipient's mind? For this process
of translation from image to idea or to conduct
is already in operation in our mental life. We
would not expect that a communication from a
spirit would occur save through a process already
active. Thus far we seem to be wholly on the
right track. What we need is further know-
ledge concerning spiritual speech, that which is

36 The Open Vision

prior to the recipient state in the subject's mind.

What, however, shall we say of the results
thus far, when we try to think in the terms and
with the facts which psychical research gives us?
Shall we depend chiefly on messages purporting
to come through mediums? Shall we consult
mediums or attempt automatic writing?

Without minimizing in any way the results to
which psychical research has led us, let us con-
sider whether we can think the subject through
to the end. In common with psychologists of
the day. Professor Hyslop, for example, uses the
term "spirit" in the sense of "the stream of con-
sciousness." He leaves us with facts which he
says "indicate something supernormal." From
these he "infers" the continuity of personal iden-
tity, although he says we do not know the con-
ditions of existence in the other world. He
places much emphasis on the limitations of our
knowledge. He keeps close to the ground and
never makes a flight in the free air to see if there
be another point of view. Always keeping the
materialistic point of view in mind as a point of
view to be overcome, namely, that there is no
such thing as spirit and that the supernormal
phenomena in question might be explained as
due to functions of the brain, he is interested to
state the usual sceptical difficulties and to try to
meet them. In fine, he works up from below.
He never supplies a spiritual criterion.

Psychical Research 37

— —■— — — — ' I.. I.,

Yet why, one might ask, should one forever be
primarily concerned with sceptical difficulties,
why make these concessions to materialism?
Taking seriously the notion that the human spirit
is a "stream," the critic might object that even
if the stream should survive for a time it might
run itself out and leave us in the mere realm of
phenomena. We need much more than infer-
ence in order to believe. The author may have
disclosed a point of "contact" with the other
world. But he does not give us that world as a
reality. It is the vividly spiritual world that we
need, at least an idea of it such that we may all
set about verifying the conception. We need a
view of the human spirit which takes us beyond
mere psychological description. We are con-
cerned with the whole self. For many of us the
spiritual world is already far more real than an
assemblage of "mental states." We are not led
to conceive of it as "mental and creative." This
characterization suggests subjective idealism, as
if space and time were merely in ourselves, as if
each self projected thought-forms upon a world
whose reality we could never know. To start
with this philosophy would be to find difficulties
all along the way.

Again, one is inclined to raise questions when
invited to maintain the attitude of the devotee
of psychical research. Nearly always the test or

38 The Open Vision

experiment under precise conditions is regarded
as of greater value than experiences coming
spontaneously. Naturally research is pushed as
far as possible and sceptical objections are raised
as long as one can propose them. But the re-
sult seems to be that one is always dealing with
parts of our nature, never the whole. The re-
sulting conclusions are meagre too. We know
from perfectly real and genuine experience that
life is very much larger. It would be impossible,
for example, ever to tell in evidential terms under
precise experiment what love is and why. We
always appeal to "values" surpassing analysis.
The higher the experience in type the harder we
find it to submit to tests and critical observation.
This explains why some of us have been unable
to respond to the requests of investigators. In
the case of thought-transference, for example,
the researcher would have us try the experiment
with a person who is a mere acquaintance, and
would have us endeavor to transmit a thought of
no interest to either party. He is doubtful about
telepathy between friends. Yet it may be the
friendly affinity and the personal interest in con-
veying a message which establishes the connec-
tion. A spontaneous experience involving mat-
ters of real interest might be worth a hundred
experiments. One may not be able to describe
all the conditions or state all the facts afterwards,

Psychical Research 39

yet the experience may have been profoundly
convincing.

Psychical experiences which come spontane-
ously, unsought, seem to belong to the more in-
terior part of our nature. They come for a good
reason or purpose. We are able to connect them
with much that has gone before and with results
presently coming to pass. One may need vari-
ous experiences to have a conviction that they are
real. Honest doubt may play an important part
for a long time. But the attitude of mind is dif-
ferent from that of the researcher who has laid
down the conditions of an experiment. It is not
necessary to think so much of the subconscious
mind as possibly playing the most important part
and perhaps generating a message attributed to
a spirit. On the other hand, one is carrying on a
very different kind of research if you please : one
is observing the experiences which come unsought
through the years and comparing them to learn
their meaning and value. One makes use of
psychical power to some extent voluntarily, but
always in line with what spontaneous experiences
have disclosed. The facts and their implications
put together seem to yield us a larger conception
of the spirit, to give us a more real spiritual
world, and to make it seem very near and acces-
sible. The standard applied throughout is the
Christian test: "by their fruits ye shall know
them."

40 The Open Vision

Experience with spontaneously given commu-
nications teaches that the believing attitude is the
one into which the spirit must grow. One must
pass beyond the point where mere proof or evi-
dence is in question. One must overcome the
desire for something marvellous or spectacular.
When the last word through mediums has been
uttered we shall still be left where we demand
convincing personal evidence. But such evi-
dences might come to us directly if we would give
up mere experiment, penetrate beyond all such
means as table-tipping, automatic writing and
spelling by the ouija-board, and give heed to the
inner experience, the real psychical experience.
Meanwhile, we may make immediate use of the
information which psychical research gives us
concerning the psychological process, the picto-
graphic series which underlies various messages,
We may then look elsewhere for light on the na-
ture of spiritual speech.

It becomes a question of studying the methods
of communication to see what the implied psychi-
cal experiences are, and of following the develop-
ment of psychical power in ourselves or in others
in so far as its spontaneous activities put us in
possession of a clue. Eventually we come to
need a higher view of the human spirit than
psychical research gives us, a higher type of sci-
ence than commonly passes current. It ceases

Psychical Research 41

to be a question of the application of sceptical
tests and becomes a question of a spiritual cri-
terion or standard by which to judge the value
of various types of inner experience. In the last
analysis every one needs such a standard, needs
a definite idea of inner perception. For in the
last analysis each of us is led to a consideration of
psychical experience by direct impression as the
higher study in this field. Hence each is brought
to a point where he takes more seriously the teach-
ing that man lives in two worlds at once, and can
begin to know while still on earth something defi-
nite concerning his relationship with the spiritual
world as a real world. Psychical research may
have helped him to define his field, to distinguish
it from the vague realm of spiritism, and may
have given him the right to talk about psychical
experiences without being classified as a fool.
Yet eventually he must look rather to the growth
of purposive inner experiences within him, and
subject all his conclusions to the test of inner per-
ception. This will not mean that he puts indi-
vidual experience above science, but that inner
perception itself implies science of another type,
and a philosophy of the inter-relationship of the
two worlds. We may then come to see that the
values of psychical research were foreseen and
surpassed long ago.

IV

METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

The preceding inquiry naturally leads to a
distinction between the content of psychical ex-
periences, the message said to come over from
the other world, or the information gained in-
tuitively concerning people and things in the
flesh; and the modes and conditions through
which the experience takes place. The intel-
lectual activity in a spirit's mind, for example,
might lead to a series of impressions on the part
of the recipient and their translation into forms
of expression dependent on the recipient's psychi-
cal constitution, the knowledge possessed, the
symbols employed, the language commonly used.
This recipiency and process of transmission or
translation would be the psychical experience as
such. The external modes of expression would
be another matter, not properly psychical but
psycho-physical in the form of motor reactions.
The more we know about the human mind and
the human organism the more accurately we
should be able to explain the outward process.

We would hardly expect the outward expres-
sion to rise higher than the intelligence or mental

42

Methods of Communication 43

type of the recipient would imply. But we
might find that external means serve a purpose
for a time to bring to a person's attention the
inner or psychical process. Thus an experience
with automatic writing or other means might be
inwardly genuine and might lead to good results.
There is no reason why we should not acknowl-
edge this and then point the way to its values.

For example, a physician in the West once
took up a pencil and proceeded spontaneously to
write without ever having seen automatic writing
and without knowing anything about the process.
Apparently, he was open to spiritual teachings
but did not know it. He might have enjoyed di-
rect inner experience, but again he was appar-
ently unaware even of its possibility. To his
great surprise he received a message advising him
to prepare himself for the ministry. Inquiring
what church he should fit for and mentioning the
names of various well known churches, he was at
length given the name of an organization of
whose existence he was wholly unaware. Still
greatly surprised he asked questions till he re-
ceived further instructions, became convinced of
the truth of the message, sought out the organ-
ization to which he had been referred and began
his theological studies. He had no further ex-
periences with the pencil. His psychical experi-
ence served as temporary means and was wholly

44 The Open Vision

harmless. His case is perhaps typical of those
who with good sense have regarded a message
as they might any advice given by a wise person
in the flesh, advice to be taken or rejected. In
this case the advice was taken because on being
put to the test it steadily led to good results.
The initial experience was soon surpassed by the
inner illumination which followed.

The phenomena of the ouija-board are not
often so simple. People experiment with it who
have no inkling of the nature of psychical experi-
ence or the involuntary phenomena likely to
accompany it. The board is regarded not only
as mysterious but as a means to omniscience, as
if any possible information could be gained
through it concerning the trivial future and what
conduct one should indulge in under minor con-
ditions. People vary in their attitude all the
way from a scepticism which leaves the organism
stiffly unyielding to a credulity which makes it
possible for two subconscious minds cooperating
to generate messages in which spirits did not
play the least part. The most absurd questions
are asked and advice is sought on the supposition
that any word purporting to come from the least
enlightened person in the other world is worth
more than the greatest wisdom obtainable in this
world. It is not strange that many in our day
are seeking light on the life after death by means

Methods of Communication 45

of this misused board. But it is not to be won-
dered at that most of its gyrations are worth prac-
tically nothing.

In the first place, remembering that psychical
experience is one thing and automatism in any
of its forms another, let us note some of
the phenomena of automatism. Either because
there is a communicating spirit present whose
mode of getting messages over differs from that
of others, or because the two sitting at the board
are unlike two others who try the experiment at
another time, the gyrations are certainly various.
Here is an alleged spirit for example whose
motion is very slow, with each word spelled out
deliberately. Here is another spirit coming to
the same two people under the same conditions
whose motion as expressed in the cooperative
automatism of the sitters is very rapid. Again,
two others trying the experiment in another place
and without previous acquaintance with the ouija-
board appear to summon up a spirit whose com-
munication is expressed in a peculiar zig-zag
motion from letter to letter never before wit-
nessed by observers who have noted differences
such as those mentioned above. On still another
occasion two people receive what seems to be a
real message containing excellent advice for
some one present. A name is spelled out and
the gentle motion of the little board as it moves

46 The Open Vision

from letter to letter coincides with the character
of the alleged communicator as known when on
earth. This spirit apparently comes on two
occasions. On the third occasion the motion of
the little board is suddenly changed through no
cause known to the sitters; it is full of rapid
dashings, ellipses and circles, while the sentences
spelled out are totally different in character
from that of the message thus rudely interrupted.
The communicating spirit explains on another
occasion that a bothersome spirit who gave the
name of "Mary" intervened and must be driven
away. Probably all who have had opportunity
to observe the phenomena of the board have wit-
nessed such variations as this. What is one to
believe?

One may of course take note of the messages
and compare them to see if the results throw any
light on their value. But such comparison does
not seem to lead very far. Here are messages
given on successive occasions by one whose motion
is gentle. The messages are coherent. Their
wisdom seems to apply to the need of the person
to whom they are addressed. It hardly appears
credible that the subconscious cooperation or
automatism of the persons present has produced
them. There is a prophecy even which is ful-
filled in due time. The communicating spirit
explains why she prefers to convey a message

Methods of Communication 47

through one of the sitters, namely, because she
is "open," but advises this young person not to
try the board often. She also gives an intelligi-
ble account of her present activities. But to the
surprise of all she says on three Sundays when
attempts were made to get a message through,
that nothing will be given on Sunday: "we rest
on Sunday." How can one reconcile this un-
expected message with what we learn from other
sources, that is, that in the spiritual world time
as we know it is not in question?

Here are two other experimenters, one appar-
ently as "open" as the young woman above re-
ferred to. Each receives a plausible message,
although unconvinced. But there follows a
prophecy and a warning, the day and the month
being given, in which there proves to be not a
word of truth, and the message carries no con-
viction whatever to the recipients. It was a
sheer product of automatism. Other messages
are so conflicting that the experimenters give up
the board once for all. Neither participant
seems voluntarily to have yielded either her or-
ganism or external memory to any communica-
ting spirit. If the messages are to be explained
on a psychological basis, it must be by reference
to subconscious cooperation and automatism.
But here are two persons receiving a message
associated with zig-zag motions on the board,

48 The Open Vision

when it is very evident to observant onlookers
that the whole message might have been gener-
ated in response to the desire of the stronger
minded participant. The only interesting fact
about it all is the peculiar zig-zag motion through
which the automatism expresses itself.

Still further, here is a person who receives
messages when sitting alone at the board. The
motion of the board is very rapid, so that the
observers are hardly able to follow and to spell
out the communications. The noteworthy fact
about the messages is that they are all incoherent
assemblages of detached words so that it is diffi-
cult to detect any intelligible meaning. Another
person sits down with the recipient. The motion
is much less rapid, but the wording is still ab-
surdly incoherent. A third person tries. The
motion is still more slow and the hands of the
person in question are plainly a drag. Messages
come during half an hour or more, but they are
all fragmentary and wholly unconvincing. The
motions plainly come through the instrumental-
ity of the one who tried the board alone. She
has no particular interest in the phenomena one
way or another but is "willing." She possesses
psychical power but has not yet le'arned its use.
Nor does she understand automatisms.

Plainly, nothing definite can be learned from
a study of the phenomena alone. One may in-

Methods of Communication 49

deed learn something about the psychical ability
of the participants. One has a collection of
facts concerning the various motions of the board,
the contrasts and conflicts of alleged messages,
and one is free to make use of any instruction
which may be tested as any bit of mundane ad-
vice is tested. But one can place no reliance
whatever on prognostications. The alleged
spirits are obviously no wiser than we are. The
interferences by deterrent forces simply give rise
to a problem which cannot in any way be settled
on the basis of a study of external phenomena.

What we seem to need to test the reality of
such gyrations is another form of evidence given
independently in the way known as "cross cor-
respondence" and confirmed from within by
actual psychical experience. For example, two
friends of mine handed me ouija-board messages
purporting to come from someone I know in the
spiritual world. Two other friends claimed to
have received messages in the same way from the
same spirit. To my surprise, another friend us-
ing the pencil apparently received a communica-
tion from the same source. This looked on the
face of it like a concerted effort to show me that a
message received in this fashion could be genuine.
But the first message was a warning and on the
face of it looked highly improbable and it was
never fulfilled. The second had no discoverable

50 The Open Vision

relation with either of the others. The third
contained no verifiable meaning whatever. It
seemed strongly improbable that this spirit, long
since gone, was once more present and using these
means. What was lacking was inner confirma-
tion and this could readily have been given by
direct inner impression. Again, I was left with
phenomena simply. The fact that the same
name was given in connection with the several
messages could be explained on another basis,
namely, that each of these friends was interested
to obtain for me a message from this particular
spirit. There was no intention on their part to
mislead, or to generate a message out of the sub-
conscious. But granted a certain half -conscious
interest on their part, and expectant attention
concerning the movements of the ouija-board,
then the rest readily followed. The name of the
person was the one which any friend would be
most likely to think of and to contribute involun-
tarily. I could not accept a message purporting
to come from that source unless my inner con-
sciousness in the form of guidance should give
emphatic assent and bid me consider it.

There is plainly a disadvantage in any experi-
ment with a ouija-board when one sits down with
the intention of receiving a message. For inad-
vertently one puts the organism into a state to
indulge in automatic movements, involuntarily

Methods of Communication 51

one gives play to one's subconsciousness. The
minds of the participants or observers readily
supply subject-matter, although unintentionally.
Involuntarily, too, expectant attention plays its
part in the case of those who are eager to learn
about the welfare of friends in the spiritual
world. There are several mental factors to
allow for, also the fact that the human organism
readily responds to automatic action. Hence
there is basis for doubt and careful analysis,
howbeit sceptical scrutiny is likely to interfere
with the believing attitude. What one desires is
evidence that can overcome all objections that can
be urged within reason. Some of us are persist-
ently doubtful about a means of communication
involving so many grounds for question as the
ouija-board. It does not seem worth while to
press on through all the difficulties when there is
a way that is so much more direct.

But now let us turn to a writer who met adverse
and baffling conditions at times but who pressed
on through the phenomena of automatism and
arrived at better results. In "The Seven Pur-
poses" Margeret Cameron describes the genesis
of messages received through planchette and
later by automatic writing developed to a high
point of efficiency. The writer was not origi-
nally interested in such phenomena and took up
the experiments with planchette without beliefs

52 The Open Vision

or expectations. This was a very great advan-
tage. She early noticed a "curious sense of
vitality" preceding the motion, also differences
in the motion, including that of a strong and
brisk movement associated with a spirit differing
in type from others who came early. The per-
sonalities of those communicating were recog-
nized slowly, but after a time three individuals
were distinctively noted, while the personality of
an interrupting spirit or deterrent force early
became manifest. When another hand broke in
there was obvious evidence of something real in
the messages. So too the change from plan-
chette to the pencil afforded a basis of fact by
which to judge.

One of the communicating spirits, Frederick,
interspersed tricks with the pencil, such as "joy-
circles" and inverted writing, in order to over-
come doubts. Apparently, as in the case of
psychical research, it was necessary to give con-
vincing evidence that the same identity persists
into the other life. It was plainly necessary too
to overcome doubt, for although the recipient
was described as "especially sensitive as a mes-
senger" she had to be taught the believing atti-
tude by repeated statements to the effect that
"doubt breaks the connection."

Sometimes messages were conveyed to the re-
cipient directly, before being written, and the

Methods of Communication 53

writer was one day told that the mind could be
read directly, "if you will let me in, and learn."
It was explained that fear of one's imaginings
is deterrent. What is needed is a "relaxed and
receptive mind — not a tense and resisting one,"
hence it was necessary to give much instruction
concerning the mental states such as doubt, fear,
grief, which hinder. Until "we are realized and
recognized," so an instructing spirit said, there
cannot be complete communion.

Persistently baffling difficulties were encoun-
tered in the effort to convince one of the persons
in the flesh for whom messages came, and some
of the statements made by the communicating
spirit were misleading and unverifiable as they
stood. But these difficulties overcome, a series
of lessons was given, together with evidences that
on the other side there was team-work to get in-
struction over to this plane. Despite this group-
ing "for a purpose," however, there was a period
when the writer contended with persistently de-
terrent forces and a "deliberate drive by malign
powers." This persistent attack continued for
three days, and much faith was required on the
part of the writer to press on. Later there were
signs which made it possible to distinguish the
personality by "the degree and quality of force
applied to the pencil." Still later explanations
were forthcoming on the part of the group to the

54 The Open Vision

effect that even they with all their additional
power were hindered for a time.

One might wonder why this group did not
warn the recipient of these messages that a con-
certed attempt to interfere with the giving of
messages was in process. But the explanation
came that nothing must be done which might
coerce or deprive the writer of her freedom.
"In your individual struggle we may not inter-
fere, even if it concerns our work. You must
believe or doubt according to your own choice
... we cannot tell you that disintegrating
forces threaten you, until you have recognized
them. Then we can help you repel them. . . .
Details of your personal struggles may not be
explained. They are your development. . . .
Malevolent and crafty forces are about, striving
to thwart progressive effort." What is needed
on the part of people here is "a free heart, a free
mind, a free hope to come into."

Evidently ignorance is a channel for disin-
tegrating forces. One must become informed
and learn how to close the door. The teaching
of the book is that there are adverse forces try-
ing to prevent the giving of such messages and
teachings. But one is encouraged to persist
through all difficulties. The experiences accom-
panying the messages are instructive. And de-
finite information is vouchsafed in regard to the

Methods of Communication 55

means of communicating, as in the following:
"The subconscious mind is like the battery,
but the connection is made through the hand.
The motive power for the pencil does not come,
as scientists claim, from the subconscious mind,
but from the subtle force I mentioned, put into
connection with the hand by certain sympathetic
and sensitive conditions of the subconscious
mind. . . . The force is not electric, and has cer-
tain definitely distinctive qualities not to be ex-
pressed in any terms now familiar on your plane ;
but in time words will be found — or coined — to
express this connection." *

In another passage the statement is made that
sometimes the pencil is pushed, sometimes the
mind is approached directly. It is said to be
easier to impress the mind, but harder for the
recipient to learn that the message is from a spirit
and not due to his own suggestion. This state-
ment throws light on the experiences some have
had when the propelling force seemed to be ap-
plied to the pencil from the outside. It may well
be that the external movement of the pencil has
been needed to convince automatic writers that
a force other than that of their own minds was
at work, that the message was really produced
by a spirit. Possibly too the real use of plan-
chette or the ouija-board is to attract attention to

i Page 251.

56 The Open Vision

the phenomena, as baffling as they may be, that
one may press on as did Margaret Cameron to
knowledge of the conditions and then on far be-
yond these messages.

Nothing of course can be established by study
of the phenomena of communication apart from
the content of the message. The really eviden-
tial part of any book is the teaching which it con-
tains. But granted the above acquaintance with
the conditions we may put two and two together
and connect the pictographic process with the
facts concerning the external phenomena. We
may then gain something like a complete view
of the various conditions.

Surely, one cannot advise any one to seek com-
munications by aid of the ouija-board, since the
conditions are subtle and complex, and there is
likelihood of being deceived. Nevertheless one
must admit that when a young person who is
"open," with no interest in the experiment for
or against, receives messages whose meaning can
be rationally tested, one should be free to con-
sider the experiences as genuinely psychical, not
mere products of automatism. The pencil has
a distinct advantage over the board. Its phe-
nomena may at least serve to attract attention
and provoke thought. The messages which have
been received in this way during the past few
years show a decided advance in intelligibility.

Methods of Communication 57

These messages are not of course conclusive in
themselves, apart from a study of inner experi-
ence. The possibility of real inner experiences
uniting us with the spiritual world is after all
the great consideration, and when we see this
clearly we may pass beyond the study of phe-
nomena. What we need is the highest guidance
we can find, the highest source of consolation, the
purest light on the life after death. We are not
likely to find that which is highest while we linger
on the psychical level. The psychical is always
a means to ends, never an end itself. Not until
we pass beyond it are we able to understand the
psychical in relation to the spiritual. May we
say then that our age is about to take this next
step in earnest and to pass beyond the psychical
into greater knowledge of spiritual realities ? *

iln "The Hill of Vision," New York, 1919, an illuminating
account of automatic writing is given which should be convinc-
ing to any one who thinks that consciousness is the determining
factor. The automatist received continuous, intelligible messages
while continuously reading a book requiring unbroken attention.

V

THE AWAKENING OF PSYCHICAL POWER

That a person may grow simply and naturally
into knowledge and use of psychical power is
shown in the case of P. P. Quimby, pioneer of
the spiritual healing movement in America.
We may consider his experience quite apart from
any interest in his teachings or any objections to
them. The example would serve as well if he
had taken up any other form of spiritual work
on an original basis. For the significant con-
sideration is that he had an open mind, no beliefs
that kept him from investigations for truth's sake,
and no attitude towards life which closed the door
to inner guidance so far as any of us know
who have had acquaintance with his relatives and
his followers. Again his experience is interest-
ing because he was not in any sense a spiritist,
and apparently had no reason for attributing
any of his experiences or guidances to angels or
spirits. He did not seek to cultivate psychical
power for its own sake and the problems of
psychical research did not exist for him. Such
power as he acquired came in the course of inves-
tigations with purely practical interests in view.

58

The Awakening of Psychical Power 59

Because of a strong personal desire for light
on his own health, Mr. Quimby experimented for
a time, beginning in 1838, with the phenomena
now known as hypnotism but then called mes-
merism. He found a responsive subject whom
he calls Lucius in his manuscripts, a peculiarly
sensitive subject who became very clairvoyant
when under mesmeric sleep or hypnosis. This
subject when thus clairvoyant would sometimes
describe the interior states of people suffering
from disease in such a way as to lead Mr. Quimby
to believe that man possesses a deeper or interior
mind whose contents throw more light on the
real nature of a person's attitude toward life, his
beliefs, and fears, than any study of man's mere
consciousness. In fact, Quimby concluded that
not until the inner mind is known can we be truly
said to know the man, or be able to help him out
of his spiritual troubles. For the inner mind
was plainly more open to what we now call
"suggestion." It also had a more direct influ-
ence upon the physical organism. This was
Quimby's original way of discovering what we
now call the subconscious mind.

Having found and followed this clue for a
while, Quimby discovered to his surprise that by
sitting silently by a person, intuitively receptive
to the inner mind, he too possessed clairvoyant
power and could not only discern interior spirit-

60 The Open Vision

ual states but also conditions within the bodily-
organism not obvious to sight and not taken into
account by the physician's diagnosis. This for
Quimby was an epoch-making discovery, for it
was no longer necessary to make use of the sen-
sitive as an intermediary. It was unnecessary
to put a person into a mesmeric sleep. This
was undesirable and abnormal. But the clair-
voyant or intuitive power which Quimby found
himself in possession of was entirely normal.
Nor need one have recourse to spirits or have any-
thing to do with mediumship, since this intuitive
power was found to be resident within the indi-
vidual. What was important was to press for-
ward in developing and using intuition. This
Mr. Quimby did without trying to cultivate
psychical power as such, because his discoveries
had opened up a new world of helpfulness for
people in spiritual need.

The peculiar beliefs about diseases and the
method of cure which Quimby espoused need
not concern us here. Suffice it that through long
practice in rendering himself receptive to the in-
ner minds of his patients Quimby grew in in-
tuitive discernment and acquired a philosophy
of the inner life which throws light on psychical
experience. The first clue was the discovery of
clairvoyance or intuition on his own part, and the
fact that this power grew with use, that is, by

The Awakening or Psychical Power 61

depending on it, by regarding its disclosures as
of more value than what passes current as know-
ledge in the world but which is oftentimes merely
opinion based on appearances. The second step
was the discovery, made by sitting silently and
receptively by the sick, that each person carries
around him a sphere or atmosphere which dis-
closes the inner conditions and states. This
sphere differs with each individual, and shows
a person to be sensitive or stubborn, hopeful or
pessimistic, negative or positive as the case may
be. It is the direct clue to subconsciousness and
by becoming acquainted with it one learns how
interior states and mental attitudes affect bodily
changes. The process known as "silent treat-
ment" operates directly through the subcon-
sciousness of the patient, and the changes made
disclose themselves in the mental atmosphere.
The healer is thus able to see what his work is
accomplishing and to perceive the forthcoming
changes long before the patient becomes aware
of them. An atmosphere or sphere can be dis-
cerned at a distance, also, and so the therapeutic
process may be carried on absently.

Quimby does not seem to have regarded this
discovery as remarkable, nor did he hold that
the influence of mental atmosphere is at all ab-
normal or unusual. He was not acquiring super-
normal knowledge of the human individual, but

62 The Open Vision

merely finding out what is partly true of all of us
and especially true of the sensitively organized,
namely, that through the world of our mental
atmospheres or spiritual spheres we are inti-
mately "members one of another." He held
that we all influence one another far more than
we know, for we ordinarily judge by surfaces ; we
fail to take the inner mind into account.
Quimby's great step was the one which took him
beyond the realm of psychical influences on the
plane where atmospheres meet and mingle to
find a way to conquer such influences in so far
as they prove undesirable.

Had Quimby merely rendered his mind open
to the feelings and inner states of his patients he
would have been no better off than those of us
who are tempted and have no victorious faith
by which to overcome temptation. Indeed he
would have been in a worse state, for he was be-
coming more sensitive and he readily took on the
feelings of his patients. But Quimby had come
to the conclusion that the real man or self behind
the atmosphere and what we now call the subcon-
scious mind is spirit, is of finer quality and
greater power than any mental atmosphere.
His writings do not tell us by what steps he
arrived at the conclusion that the spirit is in-
wardly open to the divine presence and is subject
to guidance. One can only infer that he had grown

The Awakening of Psychical Power 63

-

into open vision to some extent. He learned
from actual experience that clairvoyant intui-
tion is not merely a mental or human power, but
that spiritual light illuminating the human spirit
discloses what is divine and what is true. More-
over, Quimby was not, so those friends assure us
who knew him best, a man who naturally attri-
buted power to himself. He seems to have
grown quite naturally into the belief, then the
conviction, that the human spirit is interiorly
open to the divine wisdom and that by giving
heed to the signs and conditions of this openness
the spirit can become more receptive and be
more truly guided.

Consequently the discovery of mental atmos-
pheres and the plight of a person in inner dis-
tress and spiritual need was merely incidental to
the seeking of divine guidance to set the sufferer
free. But this was not all. For if a sufferer's
need voices itself as it were by means of vibra-
tions sent out by the sphere which the person
carries, the one who has learned to discern an-
other's spirit can also send forth power from
within. That is to say, the spiritual healer,
learning that man is a spirit, also learns to talk
directly to the spirit in the patient. This con-
verse of spirit with spirit is not mere thought-
transference in the sense of the mere transmis-
sion of words or sentiments, for the patient may

64 The Open Vision

not be aware of the process at all, may not receive
any thoughts, since the interchange takes place
subconsciously. Furthermore the spiritual
healer does more than simply to turn away from
the patient's atmosphere, having discerned it, and
from the negative thoughts, fears, haunting
mental pictures and the like. He also rises
above the level of these in a state of interior open-
ness to divine power and divine wisdom, as one
does when seeking inward peace and poise. The
mental process consists in part of discerning the
mental pictures that haunt and trouble the spirit,
and of dwelling upon a higher grouping of men-
tal pictures expressing the divine ideal. Thus
there is a spiritual pictographic process which is
said to efface the troublesome pictures which
beset the patient's mind. In Quimby's view of
the matter the efficiency lies in the divine power
or wisdom, not in the mere process of picturing
the ideal. The process is a means to an end.

Quimby's discovery concerning the influence
of mental spheres led the way to this more im-
portant step, that spirit can converse with spirit
by the direct inner way. For if atmospheres can
meet and mutually influence so that there is
"mental contagion," the rule of a positive mind
over a negative one, so that there is a "crowd
spirit," subconscious or involuntary interchange;
then spirits can meet one another for still higher

The Awakening of Psychical Power 65

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reasons. If one is receptive, expectant, in faith ;
the other intuitively alert, seeking the divine
guidance, dynamically strong and affirmative,
the result will obviously be very different from
that of a mere mingling of spheres. To Quimby
the central interest lay in the spiritual power
given him to quicken another and better state in
the patient. For our present purposes the sig-
nificance lies in the fact that Quimby was led to
one of the great typical interpretations of psychi-
cal experience by a simple direct road which any
one might follow.

Quimby did not stop with the conclusion that
the inner mind is the clue to the nature of disease
and its cure. Having seen that the inner or
spiritual man is the real man, and that man as a
spirit possesses "spiritual senses," as he called
them, of which clairvoyance is one, he went fur-
ther and concluded that spiritual life is real life,
that man is a spirit living in the spiritual world
now. He looked upon death as relatively exter-
nal and incidental. He spoke of death in fact
as no more of a change inwardly than would
occur if he should move from his home in Belfast
across Penobscot Bay to Castine, that is, a
change within the same world, the real world in
which we always live. At the time of his own
death his spirit was partly separated from the
flesh for a brief period and when he regained con-

66 The Open Vision

sciousness for an even briefer period he told a
member of the family that he had proved his
theory of death. That was his last message to
the world.

What inner experience reveals to us then,
from this point of view, is the real life we are all
the while living although unaware of it. The
spirit belongs to and lives this real life. Clair-
voyance, like other interior powers, simply re-
veals one of our permanent faculties, in contrast
with the physical senses which we use only while
in the flesh. We all possess these the real powers
of our true self. We might all learn to listen
within, discover what manner of being the self is
and become open to spiritual guidance. It is
this true self which God would have us realize.
Our real life is constituted for it. But through
ignorance we have been misled by opinions and
appearances. We have been unaware that there
is a true science of life, freedom, health and
happiness, a science which all might acquire and
which we might verify by the New Testament
as divine, if we were able to see the spiritual wis-
dom which Jesus taught and by which he wrought
works of healing.

Note that according to this simpler theory of
the spiritual life each of us is immediately in
touch with God as the immanent source of our
life and our wisdom. Without any ado then we

The Awakening of Psychical Power 67

may seek the inner guidance. Here Quimby's
view coincides with the belief prevailing among
the Society of Friends or Quakers that the in-
ward guidance is "the light of Christ within the
soul." Intuitive power is a kind of God-sense
in us. It pertains to the whole of the inner life.
It opens us to the divine presence without inter-
mediary. It leads, not to quest for spirits or to
conversation with them, but to desire to be led
by the universal Spirit. By its beneficent light
the heart with its longings is revealed. In that
light a sufferer's needs are manifest, Through
that light problems may be solved.

Whatever objections might be made to this
view by those who hold a different theology, it
plainly has a very great advantage. To test it
one need not accept much by way of belief, but
one may begin forthwith to look for signs that
the inner life is prior and more real, one may put
one's spirit into a certain attitude to see what
follows. There is surely a strong reason for
seeking communion with God by a simple nor-
mal method devoid of mysticism and symbolism,
for the sake of practical needs and spiritual ser-
vice, that spirit may talk with spirit. All that
one need look for at first is signs of intuition.
One's own experience will afford the clue. At
the same time the growth of this inner power
with the disclosure of what is real in the inner

68 The Open Vision

life will lead the way for the understanding of
all psychical experiences on a simple basis. One
stands in need of such a directly practical prin-
ciple in order to clarify the way in that region
of our nature where it is so easy for the undis-
cerning to be misled.

To adopt this view that the power is vested in
the self, that there are spiritual senses that may
become open and active, is not to look outside to
any extent but to learn all that one can about the
inner mind and its disclosures. One learns, for
example, that the mind functions in two ways or
on two levels. One may be externally absorbed,
giving heed to appearances, moving with the
crowd, meditating on the opinions of men and
subject to their spheres. Or one may be in-
wardly alert, open, clairvoyant, receptive, in a
state to seek divine guidance. To become some-
what familiar with the contrast between outer and
inner states, is to be able to disconnect one's con-
sciousness from the ordinary run of mental states
and connect it with the higher or inner activity.
One is only partly oneself on the lower level,
hence one is open to influences of various sorts.
One begins at last to be one's whole true self on
the higher level. In any time of need one may
lift the mind to the higher plane and seek guid-
ance, quickening power.

When spirit speaks with spirit the whole being

The Awakening of Psychical Power 69

speaks. When the purpose in view is the spirit-
ual healing of another person, the objective is to
make that person "every whit whole." To be
"whole" is to be in the affirmative attitude, sound,
sane, strong. But to be merely functioning on
the lower level of mental life is to be in consider-
able degree negative, subject to many kinds of
influence.

The same receptivity in us which when open
to spheres may draw us into difficulties and
troubles might be dedicated to spiritual uses.
The same powers in us which participate in psy-
chical experiences, desirable or undesirable, in vi-
sions, mystical transports or conversations with
spirits, are active in what we call religious experi-
ence when we commune with God. The form
which inner experience takes depends upon the
type of mind of the recipient. If emotional,
tending to employ symbolical imagery, or calmly
intellectual, or whatever the type, our inner na-
ture contributes the mental forms. The belief
enters in, too, the theology or mysticism, the
theosophy or spiritism, or the reasoned philoso-
phy. In Quimby's case there was one main in-
terest, so the intellectual reaction was simple,
and we see that he was very directly led by what
to him was divine wisdom.

His mind did not lead him into the consider-
ation of "auras" and "planes," besetting spirits

70 The Open Vision

and deterrent forces, because he was directly and
steadily interested in the welfare of the sick. He
did not dwell on or cultivate psychical power as
such, because he was absorbed in using it for
spiritual ends. His experience did not lead him
into psychical bye-paths, because life was too full
of opportunities to help people spiritually.
Nevertheless, he was all the while using his own
psychical powers or senses and growing in aware-
ness of them. The views he adopted are deeply
suggestive, because they indicate a straight way
through the difficulties.

To bring the whole view before us, we need
to assume that our inner powers tend to develop
or unfold and merely await occasions for quick-
ening. By nature we all possess powers looking
forward to the open vision. By nature, birth,
inheritance from God, we are spirits dwelling in
the eternal spiritual world. It is natural and
normal for spirit to talk with spirit. We might
all have been led from earliest childhood by
spiritual perception or intuition. One power
would have led to another in an orderly purpose-
ful way. We would have found our needs met.
Our outward life would then have very plainly
corresponded with the inner. Each of us would
have depended first and last on the spiritual
senses, and we would have come to take the sub-
conscious mind and the realm of spheres as mat-

The Awakening of Psychical Power 71

ters of course. Life would have found us seek-
ing our kind, doing our work in affinity with
those in affinity with us. We would have poss-
essed such health, freedom and power as few of
us now dream of, or which we contemplate in
ideal terms merely.

But ignorant of all this, surrounded by things
which enticed and absorbed us, we became im-
mersed in outward things, and the whole conven-
tional system tended to keep us imprisoned, does
so still. Even to talk about intuition is to be
called * unscientific," and to claim that all men
can acquire it is in the world at large to be called
a fool. We assign the genius to a favored re-
gion where he at least is supposed to be inspired.
To work our way back to recognition of the
open vision we need to begin anew without creeds
or doctrines, taking seriously the best spiritual
teachings in the world.

In our ignorance, too, we have overlooked the
language of correspondence, the speech of the
spirit. We have been repelled by all that passes
current as spiritism, and so have failed to recog-
nize in our innate power of speaking in the spirit
to another spirit the universal of all language,
the interchange of soul with soul. Yet if
Quimby is right we all live in a measure in a
world of thought-interchange, and we might as
well learn to know it and to seek the best.

/

72 The Open Vision

Whatever is real in spiritism is doubtless as harm-
less and intelligible as that which is real in ordin-
dinary thought-interchange. Much depends on
what we are open to, what we are looking for.
The spiritual world is brought very near us in-
deed when we realize that we already use its lan-
guage when speaking to the heart of another, in
our genuineness, our honesty, sincerity, whenever
we send out the best that we believe and in a
spirit of love, good fellowship and cheer. It is
brought nearer with each discovery concerning
this spiritual speech and the way in which it takes
place. Life is rendered simple by the whole
venture, for we do away with the intermediaries,
we turn directly to the higher level of our true
life.

Let us say in brief, in interpretation of this
view, that there is an impetus from within and
an impetus from without, that the spirit is drawn
in two directions. We well know what the
promptings to outward life are, we are all the
while struggling to get free from them, those of
us who love spiritual things. But suppose we
say that the impetus from within is creative, that
the spirit is so guided, protected, strengthened
and sustained that in the affirmative attitude it
tends to create circumstances instead of becom-
ing subject to it. We realize that there is a
movement of the divine life from within outward,

The Awakening of Psychical Power 73

to carry us on into spiritual self-expression and
service. What is called guidance is part of that
impetus from within. What is called the psy-
chical in so far as the psychical is good and
desirable comes under this guidance. It is
the impetus from within which supplies the
motive power. This impetus tends to bring
to us the conditions, and the opportunities
which we need. It tends to bring all things into
correspondence and harmony. Our part is to
think with it, will with it, move with it, live from
it. This gives us the needed standard. Into
the spiritual light within our souls we may lift
every need and every problem. In that clear
light we may come to see what is human, what
divine; what is merely mental, what spiritual;
what from without, what from within. The es-
sential is that each man should seek it and be
tested by it for himself. This was the practical
spiritual result Mr. Quimby was led to by merely
following his own guidance wherever it led, but
also, as some of us would add, because the time
had come for the return to the inner vision. His
experience shows that one may push through to
that vision without in any way becoming in-
volved in spiritism. It suggests that we need
above all else to grow in intuition or inner spirit-
ual perception. Granted this, we may be able
to turn to the Bible, as did Quimby when his

74 The Open Vision

experiences and insights afforded the clue, as
the open book of man's spiritual progress on
earth. Mr. Quimby's teaching is also interesting
and suggestive in view of the fact that his use of
spiritual power without mediumship or spiritism,
set the example for all types of mental and New-
Thought healers.1

iSee "The History of the New Thought Movement," New
York, 1919.

VI

SPIRITUAL SPEECH

Oun inquiry has brought us to the point where
we have gained light on the communications of
spirit with spirit. Psychical research has af-
forded us a clue to the pictographic process of
transmission. Mr. Quimby's investigations led
by another road to knowledge of a similar pro-
cess through the experience of spiritual healing.
Quimby found among other undesirable contents
of the mind of a person in spiritual need mental
pictures associated with the inner trouble. His
process of spiritual realization consisted in part
of the substitution of a better series of mental
pictures in place of those forming the old asso-
ciation. This pictographic transmission was not
the whole process by any means, but we are
helped toward an understanding of his curative
speech from spirit to spirit, if we take our clue
from this process. What we now need is a way
of thinking about the actual process of trans-
mission, that is, the means of dynamic communi-
cation, the inner efficiency.

Of all recent books purporting to contain com-
munications from the other world, Basil King's

75

76 The Open Vision

"The Abolishing of Death" has the most to con-
tribute in this connection. The author has much
to say about the entirely normal simple way in
which Jennifer, the writer in this case, has re-
ceived the automatically produced messages.
The book helps to make clear the step beyond
planchette, the ouija-board, and all other sim-
ilar means, especially beyond mediumship in all
forms. It gives one the impression that while
mediumship has served its purpose in scientific
experiment, it would be best now to give it up.
This would mean a step beyond ordinary psy-
chical research.

Thus the communicating spirit, Henry Tal-
bot, is quoted as saying that "spiritualism is a
sincere search for truth, but directed into the
wrong channels. . . . Appearances and voices
make use of the coarser senses, while this method
— that of writing — appeals to that which is most
divine in man, intelligence, and the divine passion
of aspiration."

Of the mediums Henry Talbot says, "They are
passive instruments in our hands, and can be
possessed by different people; but we are not
accustomed to that way of communicating and
do not like it. It is often misleading for we have
not learned the laws." He finds in spiritualism
a feeling after God, emphasizes the desire to
seek communication, but strongly advises against

Spiritual Speech 77

consulting mediums. Of distinguished men on
our plane who are going to mediums he says:
"They must be persuaded to use other channels
as soon as possible. They get satisfaction; but
it is not in the best way. It is better than no
way; but it is like a long-distance connection
compared with a quiet talk. . . . Mediums
should be discouraged from using their gifts in
their usual way, and should try to write. This
would do away with the accompanying physical
effect of their trances, and with the mystery and
awesomeness which surround their interviews.
To that we are opposed, as all communication
should be simple, natural, and in the light."

Advising still further, this spirit speaks of
spirituality, or "the aspiration of the soul as ex-
pressed by the intellect," as a means which can-
not fail to establish contact with those in the
spiritual world desiring to help. Spiritual
thoughts, he teaches, are in harmony with God's
creation, and "are transmitted quickly by the
waves of rhythm." The natural language of the
universe being "thought-exchange," all can ac-
quire it, and in our thought-lives we already
possess the motor, the dynamic means of com-
munication. Thought, in fact, is practically
synonymous with force as he uses the term, and
rhythm is the means by which thought operates,
rhythm is the motion with which the universe is
alive, the basic harmonious principle.

78 The Open Vision

Putting this thought in his own language, Mr.
King says, "Whether we know it or not — and in
the incalculable majority of cases we do not
know it — our thoughts are perpetually travelling
on the rhythmic waves. These waves are living
with a form of life we can hardly comprehend.
They are always bringing us mental and spirit-
ual food; they are always carrying mental and
spiritual food from us to others. The thought
in your mind is borne to another mind when you
have no suspicion that any action has taken place.
The thought in another mind is wafted to yours
when you may believe that it originated in your-
self. It has often been observed that similar
impulses become manifest in widely separated
directions all at once."

That is, Mr. King thinks that rhythm as the
universal of all speech may be "the first expres-
sion of Creative Mind." If so, we have direct
light on the significant fact that different minds
in various parts of the world make the same dis-
covery at about the same time. It does not
follow that intelligence is always required to be-
come open to these waves of rhythm, for being
universal even the animals are open to them.
"Beings that we generally estimate as low in the
scale have an intimate sense of this rhythm, while
man has lost command of it. Insects, fishes,
birds, all vibrate to it, with a consequent height-

Spiritual Speech 79

ening of their powers." Mediums, Henry Tal-
bot tells us, have kept this sensibility to rhythm,
their perception of it has not been blunted, how-
beit they have not the intelligence to control and
direct it. "They represent in some degree what
God intended us all to be." The infant still
possesses this sense in some measure, but educa-
tion blunts it. Intuition, tact, sympathy, in so
far as we still possess these powers, are indica-
tions of this sense of rhythm. People who are
able to read another's mind also have it in some
degree. What is needed is cultivation of this
power through aspiration, a desire for the good.
If we possess the same sense of rhythm we poss-
ess at least potential spirituality, and by recog-
nizing it we might more intelligently seek harm-
ony. A person with both a sense of rhythm
and conscious spirituality has a distinct advan-
tage.

The sense of rhythm being applied in all
thought-exchange, "since the thoughts pass on
the waves of rhythm from soul to soul," we are
next told that love regarded as inclusive of all
good is the only vehicle of transmission. Wire-
less telegraphy gives us a direct idea of the trans-
mission, so does absent treatment as practised by
present-day healers. So-called malicious animal
magnetism would be an instance of a jarring or
interruption, since according to Henry Talbot

80 The Open Vision

"nothing evil can travel over the waves of rhythm,
since that would be inharmonious, and thus
would not accord with the unity of the whole.
Evil would be powerless to progress." What-
ever we might think of this view of evil, we find
in what is said about rhythm a very direct appeal
to recover it. This appeal is the very heart of
Talbot's message.

Mr. King suggests that were we aware of this
law of rhythm as the universal of all language,
informed too concerning "the perfect naturalness
of the intercommunion, and more harmonious
with God, the communion might come to us as
easily as singing to a bird. Knowledge of
thought-transference directly helps us to this
priceless sense. Indeed, thought-transference
is spoken of as "the first heavenly sense," and it
can "also be the last earthly one. It is the
highest reach of this plane, just as it is the point
to which that plane comes farthest down. In it,
therefore, the earthly and the heavenly find a
common meeting-ground."

Originally potential in us all, the sense of
rhythm was possessed actively in ages when peo-
ple were more elemental. The power was lost
in proportion as men became self-conscious.
With the growing knowledge that their thoughts
were so frequently evil, men closed their minds
against other minds, and for the same reason

Spiritual Speech 81

found other minds closed against theirs. The
loss of the faculty was thus due to fear.

To regain this power confidence must be re-
established. We should begin by believing this
recovery possible. This is a rather large under-
taking, since the majority of us do not believe it
to be possible. "The mind that was shut ages
ago finds it difficult now to open. . . . We are
like sightless men told that with a little trouble
they could see, and who refuse to take the pains."
But Henry Talbot assures us that practice, when
we have realized the opportunity, comes easily.
"The most difficult problem is to realize the
opportunity."

Our evil thoughts are of course obstacles to be
overcome. If we would cultivate this power by
thought-exchange between this plane and the
next, we must send out only such thoughts as
have been purified, while those there have only
purified thoughts to send us. It is said that all
our good and kindly impulses with regard to
those who have preceded us to the next plane
have already reached their object. Mourning,
grief, doubt, always hinder. Unwittingly we
have cut ourselves off from those whom we would
reach. Even honest doubt is put down as an
obstacle. This book everywhere teaches the
value of the believing attitude. We are taught
that intercourse with the plane next above us is

82 The Open Vision

part of our intercourse with God. Separation
from our loved ones is no part of the divine plan.

Connecting this teaching about rhythm with
what the Bible tells us about "the open vision,"
we have an illuminating clue as to the nature of
that vision, and speech with the angels is made
more plausible. "All through the Old Testa-
ment," writes Henry Talbot, "you can mark the
degree of harmony and sensitiveness to rhythm
by the communications with God. This has
very rarely been the case since the days of estab-
lished ecclesiasticism. Joan of Arc has been the
most marked instance of comparatively modern
days."

The trouble has been that we permitted the
clergy to be our "religious brokers." We have
not communicated directly with God. "That
is why so many simple, uneducated souls acquire
through rhythm a wisdom which is never ac-
corded to the so-called wise. Knowledge has
obstinate human attributes which at times pre-
vent its use." "Simplicity," Basil King tells us,
"directness, the lighted mind, the open heart,
something akin to the receptive trust of those
who are 'converted and become as little chil-
dren' would seem, then, to be the necessary gifts
of all who wish to speak this wonderful thought-
language and hear it in response."

We learn that while spirits of lower intelli-

Spiritual Speech 83

gence will speak through mediums, others a little
more advanced use planehette and the ouija-
board to attract attention. These are "easily
manipulated, but do not lend themselves to the
expression of coherent thoughts, unless the me-
dium be very gifted. When that is the case,
handwriting would be better. Then would come
direct thought-exchange."

This book, unlike "The Seven Purposes," has
has little to say about deterrent forces and noth-
ing about the malign influences and positive ef-
forts to interfere which Margaret Cameron
encountered. Henry Talbot says definitely,
"There are no evil spirits." Instead, he teaches
that "there is a missing link somewhere which
leads to messages being garbled. When that
happens, we give warning to those who can re-
ceive it not to believe the apparent words. It
is an imperfection in transmission which by per-
severance can be overcome. . . . The imperfec-
tions arise from the human element. Either the
transmitter becomes fatigued, or allows his or her
personality to intrude, or is overcome by doubt
or strong desire. The necessary requisite for
good transmission is to keep the mental track
cleared and allow our message to run down it."

In a most significant statement this communi-
cating spirit says, "It is only when man resigns
the direction of his mind that he becomes rhyth-

84 The Open Vision

" — ■

mical." This suggests that the great trouble with
us is self-assertion, the desire to control for our
own benefit. This produces discord, breaks the
rhythm. We must become aware of the states
in us that interfere, and seek to cultivate those
that accord with what we are able to learn con-
cerning spiritual speech.

We may take our clue from what is here told
us concerning rhythm and endeavor to complete
the idea of spiritual speech, putting together
hints from various sources. If we were to listen
to such speech in its purity in the spiritual world
we would doubtless find that it is what Sweden-
borg calls "interior speech," and takes place both
by conversations through the interchange of
ideas and by the transmission of representations
or symbols. Thus ideas represented in symboli-
cal form might almost be said to be visible, and
capable of conveying more meaning to the spirit
than could be conveyed or even suggested of
words as we employ them. Modifications of
spiritual light would then communicate ideas and
meanings in the most graphic manner, while the
real inner feeling would be conveyed rhythmic-
ally. With life thus speaking from heart to
heart, life appealing to life, spiritual speech might
be called "living speech." In listening to it and
following the imagery representing it, spirits
would perceive both what is in the idea and what

Spiritual Speech 85

is in the heart of the speaker, what the end or
purpose is and by what motives it is conveyed.
Where the whole spirit thus speaks, words, im-
ages, and rhythms would harmoniously express
what our own languages on earth only imper-
fectly convey. This speech from the whole
spirit, with no motives concealed, no self-interest
marring the rhythm, would be the universal of
all true language. Hence a spirit speaking with
a fellow-spirit in the spiritual world or with a
spirit in the flesh would be addressing the spirit
in his native tongue while really uttering words
or conveying rhythms intelligible to all. With
the words and symbols perfectly expressing the
inner intent, there would be perfect correspond-
ence, each listener would perceive in accordance
with his own response.

To speak this universal language would not
of course be to reduce all language to monoton-
ous cadences, but to add marvellously to the
varied intonations which we know in part when
human speech is lyrical and sweet. Indeed the
language of rhythms and representations cor-
responding to interior ideas and the whole spirit
of the speaker would be the first adequate lang-
uage, it would give voice to the infinite variety,
the endless shades of meaning of individuality.
Just as we now know to some extent what part of
a given country a person comes from by his ac-

86 The Open Vision

cent, or even what city or town he lives in by
peculiarities of intonation and the use of local
phrases, so whole assemblages of spiritual beings
united in work and idea might speak in cadences
peculiar to them and might be so known.

We already have some inklings of what such
speech might be. We know the language of
goodness on earth, the speech of one whose whole
being expresses devotion to good works, to what
is called "the life of charity" in the sense of
entire consecration. We have listened to men
whose ringing voice, whose purity of tone ex-
pressed exceptional purity and power in the in-
ward life. We have listened to women whose
gentleness of speech, whose tenderness told us
of a life unsurpassingly beautiful. There is a
certain accordance between thought and life in
such a person's utterance. We cannot be mis-
taken. We realize that this is reality. By con-
trast we note the discordant tones of those in
whom heart and head are not yet one. We learn
to read even more in the intonation than in that
other representation of inner language, changing
facial expression. We all speak "the language
of feeling" to some extent. A mere hint or sug-
gestion, a hand-clasp, a look, a gesture, admits
us to the heart or meaning behind. One who
has stood on "holy ground" tells us this by in-
timations which require no words, if we too have

Spiritual Speech 87

stood there, or if we have at least discerned
enough afar to have some inkling of the wondrous
landscape lying beyond. If you and I have suf-
fered together we give that intelligence to each
other by a mere reference or reminder. Neither
one could describe the experience or even tell
another that it holds such meaning. We are
scarcely aware of its significance ourselves. Yet
tacitly we suggest that we know and have under-
stood. We have both been there. We have both
lived. And life speaks the language of rhythm,
heart vibrates to heart. Moreover, music and
poetry as well as the drama convey these deeper
meanings to those with listening ears. Music
speaks when the tongue itself is dumb.

Spiritual speech is of course from the interior
memory and appeals to this heart-memory in an-
other. We are scarcely aware that we possess
such a memory, yet we might infer that we have
it from our conviction that identity survives after
death and with it power of recognition of one
another, vivid consciousness on our part of what
we were on earth and how we lived. We might
gather many hints of its existence if we would
seek them. We know interiorly, for example,
what we have lived through, even though we have
never found a friend so congenial that we can
bare our heart's inmost feeling. With sympa-
thetic souls we can disclose the true intent or

88 The Open Vision

motive and we do this by letting life itself speak
through us from within. What appears on the
surface may have little to do with what we now
disclose from within as the real effect upon the
soul, the real struggle through which we have
passed. In the course of a lifetime we have all
met at least two or three to whom we could speak
from the interior memory. Granted more and
more before whom we would appear as the true
full self we really are at heart, there would then
be appeal to the inner memory as the usual thing,
and everybody would take this memory for
granted.

The open vision into things human is nothing
less than this spiritual language. The speaking
of heart to heart is part of the vision. It puts
us in intuitive touch with the soul. Such lan-
guage was not given us "to conceal thought," as
we say of our polite and formal speech on earth,
but to convey thought in all the richness of its
reality. Granted the openness of the spiritual
world where motives are laid bare and the inmost
meanings are seen, there would be nothing to
conceal thought, no reason for trying to hide it
behind elusive phrases and hypocrisy. The
guilty would shrink from the mere idea of such
a language. The unduly sensitive, shy, self-
centered and selfish would also shrink from it.
But the genuine lover of truth, of God and man,
of goodness and beauty, would welcome it.

Spiritual Speech 89

We already know that deeds speak above
words, for or against. We know that genuine
acts truthfully disclose the soul. Beings possess-
ing angelic insight would not need to be told but
would read our hearts in our deeds. If we have
guardian angels with us, they would merely need
to know our motives, discern the ends. The rest
would be mere detail. What we really care for
after all is thus to be credited with what we actu-
ally are, all appearances having been put aside,
all pretension overcome. We like utter frank-
ness even though it seems to be inexpedient in this
mundane sphere. We do not wish to mount on
borrowed power or claim to be what we are not.

Those people who are "honest with themselves,"
as we say, who admit what they truly are in entire
sincerity, have already come very near knowing
what spiritual speech is. We know it in part as
a visible language, and in part as the language
of silence. Sometimes it seems almost drowned
out by the noise of our gross external speech. To
discern the interior language and to grow in it we
need to s.till the outer senses and listen within.
In some measure we might learn habitually to
listen within though busily occupied without.
Listening within, seeking "the inward light," as
the Friends call it, praying to "the Father which
seeth in secret,' ' — all these are varied ways of
expressing the same idea. Unable to tell all

90 The Open Vision

that we mean by it we turn to some of the great
hymns and psalms which suggest it. When we
read the twenty-third Psalm, for instance, we
both feel the rhythm and perceive the imagery:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he
leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth
my soul."

Again, we apprehend another rhythm in such
lines as these: "There is a river, the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy
place of the tabernacle of the most High. God
is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:
God shall help her, and that right early." We
seem both to hear and to feel the very pulsations
of heaven itself in these utterances. The twenty-
third Psalm we can visualize in a measure, as we
see men and women walking along the pathway
of life and invited to turn into pleasant vales by
still waters. But when our thought is lifted
above to the city of God our imagery can scarcely
follow, and we feel rather the broad sweep of
the lines: "There is a river, the streams whereof
shall make the city of God." We can hardly
realize what must have been the vision of the
psalmist when he was quickened to give expres-
sion to such an utterance. But we are not by
any means left without a clue. We already ap-
prehend in some degree the very language of
heaven itself.

VII

RECENT LITERATURE

The reading of books on psychical experiences
and messages purporting to come from the great
beyond reminds us of the state of mind which
some of us are thrown into when people under-
take to discern signs of character in one's hand-
writing, lines of fate in the palm, or in other
ways to tell one's fortune. There may be ele-
ments of truth in each of these descriptions, and
an astrological reading of character may also be
partly true. One may combine what one person
says with what another pronounces and arrive
at results of some value. But unless a man
knows his own character far better than even the
most persuasive person can read it he has no
means of telling how far the reading is true.

The average book is little better than a prog-
nostication which leaves the mind in doubt. One
may conclude in each case that there is a core
of reality in the collection of messages, but one
is always minded to ask, What faith or phil-
osophy goes with this element of truth to develop
it into an acceptable whole? As in the case of
a reading of one's character which includes a

91

92 The Open Vision

prophecy that might suggest fear, one must
guard against taking it too seriously. Ordinar-
ily there is no sure principle in the book itself
to show how far one may follow it. If sincere
the writer is likely to admit a certain doubt
whether to accept and publish the message. One
must seek guiding light elsewhere. If the book
be put into one's hands for a purpose, one may
submit its teachings to the same tests which one
makes use of in meeting life in general. Every-
thing depends, for us, upon ideas previously ac-
cepted as true from other sources.

"Interwoven," for example, a book which pur-
ports to contain letters from a son to his mother
given through a medium during ten years after
the son's death yields no principle by which the
truth it may contain can be discerned. In itself
it is most confusing, abounding as it does in ideas
which surely cannot be true. Even if we com-
pare one of its teachings, the theory of reincar-
nation, with the teachings of other books and find
apparent confirmation elsewhere, for example,
in "Letters from a Living Dead Man," we have
no assurance ; for in books of still another class one
reads that this theory is not the true principle
of progression. Apparently people take over
into the world of spirits the beliefs which they
came to adopt while here. While the communi-
cating spirits are earth-bound they are no more

Recent Litekatuke 93

to be followed than we would uncritically follow
any theorist in the flesh. Each book takes us
into the world of its own theoretical construction.
There are types of belief, even national beliefs
expressed in books claiming to contain wisdom
from beyond. Thus a writer on spiritism, J.
Arthur Hill, calls attention to the fact that
spiritism in France is reincarnationist, while in
England and the United States on the whole it is
not. The reason in the case of France is found
in the fact that an early writer on spiritism,
Allan Kordec, taught reincarnation. So, he as-
sures us, spirits communicating in France, regu-
larly teach reincarnation, while spirits speaking
in England as regularly deny it. Reincarna-
tion being in general a theory on which people
split, one must look for light outside of the litera-
ture of spiritism.

On the other hand, when we find writers of
various schools agreeing that in the other world
there is no sense of time as we know it we have
an intelligible clue, for it not only appeals to us
as true concerning the life of pure spirit, but we
find it confirmed indirectly in communcations
concerning mundane events and the future. To
take such a communication too seriously is to
find evidence that there really is no awareness
of time and that we were at fault in proceeding
on the assumption that a day and hour could

94 The Open Vision

be foretold without error. If we were not on
our guard in reading prophecies purporting to
speak with confidence concerning future events
as they may be known in this world, we might
slip uncritically into belief in foreordination.
But foreordination is a theory which would need
to be subjected to critical study quite apart from
any spiritist prophecy. Such a prophecy might
be right in its other details, yet wholly fail in
point of time. Furthermore, one may have seen
in a wholly different connection that one must en-
tirely drop our ideas of time in order to think
philosophically about the spiritual world. We
must also eliminate our ordinary ideas of space.
There is remarkable agreement on these points.
Again, one would need to make allowances to
some extent for the personal equation and the
vocation of the person while living on earth.
Just as the man who was engaged in psychical
research on earth ostensibly continues the same
interest and seeks out his former associates in this
world, using the same terms when communicat-
ing with them, as Hy slop's book indicates, so
those of similar interest are drawn together in
any number of groups. Thus "Interwoven" is
by a young physician and what he tells in his
letters to his mother on the basis of his gradually
awakening experiences in the other world is what
pertains to his profession and is no more credible

Recent Literature 95

than the exposition of any theory by one on earth
whose views incline toward the fantastic. If on
the other hand we read in "The Seven Purposes"
that experience for us mortals is a warfare be-
tween destructive and constructive forces, and if
we have learned from other sources that man is
indeed held in equilibrium between opposing
forces while in this world, that he may choose be-
tween them and acquire a prevailing love, we may
find ideas that are enlightening. The language
of this book is often philosophical rather than
spiritual. It does not sound so high a note as
Basil King's book, "The Abolishing of Death."
It gives no clear idea of God. It leaves us in
the realm of purpose. But the personal equa-
tion does not seriously enter in. It does not turn
upon the technical interests of any single voca-
tion, but is concerned with a supposed group of
enlightened souls who made themselves known to
a group here.

Again, in recent books one finds many state-
ments concerning the great war from the van-
tage-point of the spiritual world, where motives
are seen, where the war on earth is regarded as
part only of that greater warfare which includes
the struggle of discarnate spirits to impede the
souls of men in their zeal for goodness. The
war, we are told in "The Seven Purposes," was
due to lust of power. As great and hideous as it

96 The Open Vision

was, on the spiritual side it signified "the reawak-
ening of the souls of men." At first, Germany-
had strong forces on her side. She possessed a
unity of purpose not realized or attained among
the Allies. But this was seen to be "the united
purpose of fear, moving towards destruction, a
movement which brought its inevitable conse-
quences as the war drew to a close. Germany-
was seen as a doomed nation with no ally left on
her side long before the war on earth reached its
climax. The only danger on our part lay in a
weakening of the offsetting purposes which were
to carry us on to victory. While this contest
was actually in process the message came, "We
are your allies, answering your call and inciting
you to endeavor . . . Every individual among
you who fails to strive for victory with all his
strength invites disaster."

After writing my own book on war-experi-
ences in France, "On the Threshold of the Spirit-
ual World," I read for the first time this view
of the war as supposably seen from the other
world, and its teachings concerning the war were
so nearly in accord with what I had been led to
believe while actually on the ground in France
that one might have supposed I had taken my
clue from "The Seven Purposes" and not from
the war. One cannot help believing that there
was intimate relation between the forces which

*

Recent Literature 97

brought the war to a close amongst the armies
actually fighting in France and the forces which
we read about in this book. In other words,
the great war must be understood from within in
accordance with a philosophy of the relationship
of the two worlds. One may approach this phil-
osophy by means of a book like "The Seven Pur-
poses," or one may feel one's way into it by
mingling with the fighters, alert for every clue
which may disclose the spirit animating them as a
whole, feeling the events as it were while they
are happening, feeling the turning of the tide as
the Allies attain moral unity and establish a
balance in favor of the constructive forces.

One finds still another promising clue in mes-
sages purporting to come from beyond which as-
sure us that death is not either the decisive or
the terrible event it seems to be. Thus "Thy
Son Liveth," despite its fallacies, helps to break
down the barriers and to put death in a secondary
place, as less painful, less significant, and on the
whole incidental to the spirit's progress from
plane to plane. In such a book the first experi-
ences after death are spoken of as natural con-
sequences of the experiences which prepared the
way in this world. Turning to the natural
world, the first desire of those who have "gone
West" seems to be to clear away the grief and
sorrow on the part of the loved ones here, that

98 The Open Vision

spiritual communion may not be impeded. One
feels a sense of life rather than of death in such
writing. The spiritual world is brought nearer.
This coincides with what one felt in France dur-
ing the war where, indeed, death had taken on a
new aspect, where the emphasis was on the life
that carries on, even beyond the threshold. One
cannot help believing that both from the point of
view of individual experiences here and in the
light of what is real in these messages the spirit-
ual world has in deepest reality been brought
nearer our comprehension and our f eeling. Part
of the meaning of recent messages seems to be
that we shall come to realize that spiritual power
has been active in the war, that the war was in-
deed a sign of spiritual awakening.

One is impressed also by the fact that our free-
dom is appealed to and we are asked to partici-
pate in a struggle by no means decided, despite
the fact that the end of the war was seen in the
spiritual world before we knew about the war as
a whole on earth. There is strong evidence in
these books that spiritual help is given us here on
earth in so far as we are ready to respond to it,
hence that much depends on our choice and ac-
tion. Whatever we may think of "Raymond,"
"Private Dowding," or any similar book, so far
as evidences in favor of the survival of a par-
ticular personality are concerned, we are brought

Recent Literature 99

nearer the pathway of relationship between the
two worlds. The mere events are secondary.
So are the details, chiefly of interest to those who
knew the soldiers in question. What concerns
us is that we are brought nearer the view of life
which regards it as continuous in spirit, in the
occupations of those who have gone on before,
and in the life-processes which connect us. We
may throw out of account those matters which
do not interest or appeal to us, and give our
thought to the primary consideration.

Even in a confusing book like "Interwoven,"
written long before the war and containing only
scanty evidences that an occupation begun here
is pursued with greater intelligence in the other
life, one finds at least an element of truth. It
were better to seize upon this than to condemn
the book outright. We are told, for example,
that life on earth is seed-life centering about our
own choices and leading through successive ex-
periences to a point which prepares us to enter
one of the lower spheres of the spiritual world.
Naturally then we are told that will or love is
the central power in us, while intellect alone is
dangerous, that is to say, that love which quickens
feeling so that it becomes "sight." "It only re-
quires an intense vibration to make all the senses
rise to equal pulse of sight." We can be drawn
to be "together in soul with those we love, who are

100 The Open Vision

in affinity with us. Mind thus quickened can
leap over or through anything. It wills itself
to the one it loves. . . . People must learn to
love souls and then there will never be loss by
death."

The teaching of this book narrows down to the
type of effort we should make in order to draw
upon the great resources open to us, including
the help of "plan-angels." "Make little ef-
forts," it is said, "but not strained ones. An
effort is a push of the soul. ... A prayer with
effort is like a flash of lightning. ... A soul
rises in its needs just as a plant does. . . . Effort
is the very thing that keeps the needs coming
... by effort a kind of door is opened. ... It
is a sure law that effort finally brings the desire.
. . . Your will is effort sent out in asking."
"Poverty," we are told, "is lack of effort and
being afraid to act." The first great need is that
we should "try to get established, and try to have
a purpose."

It is significant to find matters narrowing
themselves down to the point where each of us
should begin here and now. Hitherto, our in-
terests in the spiritual world have often been
merely intellectual, hence the messages were in-
tended for our intellectual education. Moreover,
there were many obstacles to belief. It was
necessary not only to overcome the old ideas of

Recent Literature 101

death and of the resurrection, but to acquaint
the mind with a way of thinking about the life
after death apart from the customary notions
of space and time. Recent books and magazine
articles have helped us to realize that there now
is remarkable unanimity on these points in re-
cent communications coming through various
channels, namely, to the effect that there is no
idea of time in the other world as we know it,
that objects are not in space as we understand
space but that outward conditions correspond
with inner, that after death life continues in
inner things as it went on here, that children grow
to maturity, that people overcome the appear-
ance of old age and express the real spirit of
beauty or youth that is in them, and thus on
through many ideas now practically taken for
granted. We need not trouble any longer over
the crude descriptions that have come to us, as
if the other life were merely a continuation of
the externals of this one; we may now proceed
at once to a definite conception of that life in
terms of these ideas now common to books of
varying points of view.

Narrowing matters down to the response which
we should make if we take the better teachings
seriously, we realize that our best effort should
lead to spiritual cooperation, a response equal
to the occasion in view of all that is being done

102 The Open Vision

for us on the other side. There is a certain
quality about the better literature of this class
which affords a clue to the open channel for com-
munication.

For example, note the contrast between the
ordinary things of this life and the power in the
messages published in an English periodical a
few years ago in an article entitled "Three Minds
and . . ." "Vitality is the thing you need. ...
The currents are changing the nations, the
people, the very lands themselves, but only those
who keep the balance can feel and know it. . . .
The more vital you let yourselves be, the more
you spread to the joy of life, the easier it will be
for me to come. . . . Joy is the key-note of my
entrance. When you are swallowed in the great
life you will not feel the small one. You are like
children looking through peep-holes at the uni-
verse; reality flows by you unheeded. . . . On
you life dawns by slow degrees, as, looking up-
ward . . . you see the sunshine. . . .

"Let changes come and fear not; he who fears
change cannot step forth to universal gather-
ings. Humans fear change, as limpets to their
rocks cling tightly. Life fears no change, for
life is onward pressing and remakes itself. . . .
Meet changes as they come. . . . The world
moves on by rhythm ; by rhythm it is swung . . ."

Such statements give us contrast indeed, lift-

Recent Literature 103

ing our spirits to that higher level where, looking
beyond all change to its cause, we think in terms
of rhythm, whose "measure is set by Him who
sent" beings forth "to do His mighty will." In
ignorance of this causality, human beings are
said to scratch in turmoil, rushing headlong here
and there. Whether or not we follow all that
the communicating spirit says, we can hardly
fail to note the majestic sweep of vision with the
glimpse it gives of things eternal : "In that great
world where changes are stability, I swing in
vast untrammelled movements ... I touch you
all — a breath from reality. . . .You speak of
union, but you do not know what union is.
Union is strength to hold, and strength to fly
apart and shatter. . . . And love is strength to
hold, and strength to rive apart. . . . Great
sweeps of life go round you, feel them ... and
you are out," that is, free.

These communications also suggest with great
emphasis the value of silent meditation: "Keep
still. All is quiet, and the region of great still-
ness is upon you. The silence calls, and speaks
with her great voice, and power is with you.
... In the great silence have I heard the voice
say, Come! . . . And silence, which is the echo
of the world-song, contains all speech, all move-
ment, and all energy. And out of silence grows
the active soul, nourished by harmony, content

104 The Open Vision

to stretch its roots through space . . . with the
silence of the soul ye first shall hear the great
gods' silence. And when ye hear the silence, on
your ears shall break the song, the song of all
eternity. In that vast universe where now I
stand, free and untrammelled, I seek to make
you feel the sweep of pulsing cosmic breath, and
mighty thronging movement. But, humans, if
ye would reach and hear by silence, look up and
out beyond the clatter of your little lives, and
gain the silence. The loves and frets and jars
of earth, so real to you, are nothing — such petty
whorls within a whirl of life beginning small, yet
stretching far, ringing through space unending."
We seem to hear a voice speaking from a
greater vantage point of reality in such lines.
We are impressed by the power of the appeal
when we read such an invitation as this: "Enter
the hushed spaces of the twilight that precedes
the dawn, and listen. . . . Listen to the calling
voices of the universe. Blend with the hurry-
feet of mighty movement. Into the hushed
spaces of your souls swings the thrilling mo-
ment." One is eager indeed to leave what is
called "the measuring-tape" of the human mind
by which we ordinarily judge, and "set out with
me a step beyond the confines," that is, gain the
sweep of this encompassing spirit which sees so
far.

Recent Literature 105

t— — — — — — — — mmm^mm m^— m ■ !■■■■■■■■■ ■■— ^— — m— ii— mw^— — ^

The point of vantage in these lines reminds
us of the prayer of the psalmist that the Lord
would put him in "a large place." It lifts us
above our minor interests in desire to respond
when we read, "Arise! and leave your earth-
sphere. Swing with me into space where star
calls star, and the great breath sweeps through
the universe. . . . Humanity lies nearest the
great heart of Him who gave you being. It
meets with that vast heart in ever-widening cir-
cles. He closer joins Himself with those, thus
comes the choices. . . . He is in very deed in-
carnate in His universe . . . It is a time for stir;
humanity lies open to it and powers press
through."

What is needed, to complete such teachings,
is a definite idea of the secret place within us,
that we may know precisely what kind of re-
ceptivity is incumbent upon us, that we may in-
vite the highest inflow of spiritual life, and
be guided through the mists and shadows.
Hitherto, seekers after light through spirit-com-
munion have perhaps been too eager for mere
assurances concerning their own beliefs. They
have brought too many presuppositions on points
such as reincarnation or the possibility that spirits
occupy houses like ours, or we have troubled over
the presence of "elementals" and the earth-bound
in the spirit-world. We have sought advice on

106 The Open Vision

trivial matters. It has been fairly easy to read
our own views into messages said to come from
beyond. Some of us have sought information
merely because of selfish grief.

These later utterances summon us to other
things. They take for granted the laws and con-
ditions of development through successive stages,
instead of reincarnation, the fact that our pre-
vailing love prepares the way for our future ; and
they advise us to learn as soon as we may what
forces make for the constructive work which we
are best fitted to do, that we may be alert, re-
sponsive, equipped to do our part. There is an
impressive difference between books which have
the demands of modern science to maintain and
those which appeal immediately to the experi-
ence of the reader to put himself in a certain
inner attitude, that he may spend no more time
on mere evidences but may become the recipient
of a directly vitalizing power.

In the last analysis what avails with each of us
is the degree of recognition and cooperation
which we have attained through actual life.
Mere theory no longer suffices. Even spiritual
knowledge of these matters is secondary. One
who regards himself as a "receptacle of life from
the Lord" may still remain inefficient in the realm
of social conduct. Since life is an age-long con-
test between destructive and constructive forces,

Recent Literature 107

such that even the great war was a series of in-
cidents merely, it is incumbent upon us to make
the actual dynamic change within, the change
from neutral or passive states to productive
states showing by their fruits in the realm of
concrete deeds that we have proved the law.

It is no longer a question of mere phenomena.
The spirit really survives. The ideals of im-
mortality and the heavens are true. The spirit-
ual world is real, contiguous with this one,
approachable. It is the realm of causes, of true
efficiency, and we can enter into dynamic rela-
tion with it. What avails is departure from
merely intellectual matters into a spirit which in-
vites the powers now offered us, the change from
knowing to doing whereby we shall manifest our
conviction that there is but one final source of
life.

For true effectiveness, one may say, after
studying these new pronouncements purporting
to come from the beyond and connecting them
with the lessons which the war has taught us,
consists in a certain break with mere conditions,
tendencies, problems, difficulties; even a break
from social groups on earth standing for certain
definite interests and creeds; and a gathering of
our forces for a higher type of communion and
of cooperation, surpassing the conventional loyal-
ties of earth. The war was won by a unity of

108 The Open Vision

this sort. These books supply some of the miss-
ing factors ordinarily unaccounted for, the ac-
tivities in the spiritual world working to estab-
lish a new constructive balance. We on earth
are advised to keep serene even in the presence
of menacing social conditions as threatening as
the war itself. For these are parts of the same
age-long conflict. To doubt, to fear, to hesitate,
is so far to invite the very forces of disintegra-
tion which we fear. We must be affirmative
from first to last. There is an affirmativeness
which will protect us both in the natural world
and in the spiritual. The old barriers between
the natural and the spiritual no longer exist for
those who realize that, whether here or there, it
is a question of working for a certain high end.
This end becomes more clear for those of us who
are able to read a book like "The Hill of Vision,"
and to see the whole process of social reconstruc-
tion now under way as a dynamic process due to
the operation of vitally present causes in the
spiritual world.

VIII

THE SEVEN PURPOSES

That a distinct advance has been made in
messages purporting to come to us from the other
world is shown by Margaret Cameron's book,
"The Seven Purposes," in which we have the re-
sults of cooperation between a supposed group
of spirits seeking to bring enlightenment to us
and a number of people in this world respond-
ing to this effort. Whatever we think of the
difficulties of communication encountered while
the messages were given, we may examine the
subject-matter by itself, testing it as we would
the teaching of any book supposably the product
of one mind only. We might find objections to
the lessons here given and purporting to be the
wisdom of enlightened minds in the other world.
Nevertheless we are free to test these lessons for
whatever they may be worth, putting them in re-
lation with other utterances ostensibly from a
similar source. It seems plausible, that there
should be such concerted effort to bring teach-
ings to us, and that in the endeavor to bring them
over to us difficulties and opposition should be
encountered.

109

110 The Open Vision

What then is the main teaching of this book,
and what is its value for those who are interpret-
ing psychical experiences? We ask this ques-
tion without regard to the customary efforts to
prove the identity of communicating spirits and
the personal interests of those to whom the mes-
sages were given. What concerns us is the point
of view of life here disclosed, in line with the
central statement coining from the other side,
"This life is just a continuation of yours under
happier conditions." For this proposition sends
us back to contemplation of life as you and I
know it here, to see if we can verify this idea of
continuity of development.

We are bidden to regard the present life as a
struggle between forces, not an ultimate strug-
gle in the sense that the lower may triumph over
the higher, that is, with uncertainty concerning
the world at large; but a struggle which may
have a happy issue, since its purpose is eternal
progress. All growth is in fact a struggle be-
tween favorable and adverse forces. This life
is in every sense of the word the beginning of
the contest, and our growth will proceed the
better in the other life if well begun here. All
growth is according to law and is slow. There
is no such thing as "punishment' ' in the other
life, but "only consequences" of our life here.
With many purposes latent in us at birth, the

The Seven Purposes 111

great objective is the development of individu-
ality. Hence the purport of the struggle is to
bring us to the point where we may choose be-
tween these tendencies of our nature, that we
may attain sufficient unity to acquire a dominant
purpose. Character results from the purposes
which we admit to consciousness. Hence very
much turns upon our consciousness and choice.
All forces tend to reach us. The negative or de-
structive do not wait to be invited. They steal
in insidiously, hindering and seriously interfer-
ing with us. If we once admit a force to con-
sciousness, make it our own, we have no choice
but to abide by the result.

First one should become aware that there is
a warfare in process within the soul, then begin
to learn the differences between the forces and
grow into wise choice. Unaware that there is
such a contest within us, many of us are wavering
between the disintegrating and the constructive
forces, now responding to the one, now to the
other. Some of us choose quickly. Others de-
lay. Some of us work to build. Others are in
league with forces that destroy. What we
should seek to do is to find "the dominant call of
progress to the soul," and follow that, leaving the
rest behind.

Individuality is said to begin with human con-
sciousness. That is, there are many tendencies

112 The Open Vision

■ I II I IIWII I— ITU— — -^ I II ■ -I ■—■■M.I—— I !■» ■ I M — ■ —■■ !■■!!■ II W— ^MW— — MMM— ^«WW

latent within us and these hy wise selection can
become one. But no one of these is originally
absolute or dominant. The unity needed must
be an achievement. It is necessary both to
choose and valiantly to act, steadily to contend
with those forces which impede our way. Or-
iginally all forces or purposes were good, that is,
they were all balanced. Even now there is no
evil that may not be good in proper combination.
Evil is "the gathered force of undirected and not
fully animated good." The essential on our part
is awareness of our possibilities and persistent
choice, with the realization that our own conduct
is contributory. By the term "purpose," there-
fore, this teaching does not mean a fate-driven
tendency. This book does not teach foreordina-
tion. "It is all a matter of forces, constructive
and destructive. We serve our own purpose in
this world or the other. The desideratum is to
have a purpose, to achieve, to progress."

A man's purpose does not consist of what he
believes or even what he desires, but of what he
is and what he does. It is the purpose which
leads to action that avails. Every individual
must have a work and do it. Free development
demands this free purpose and concentration.
The integrity of our nature depends to be sure
on the parts which make up the whole, but our
strength lies not in the parts, but in unity. Part

The Seven Purposes 113

of our whole development comes through our
struggle to decide, a struggle which we have to
put through in part alone. Yet we are also akin
to those of like purpose, and the possibilities of
working together toward a noble end are great
indeed. Thus our actively constructive efforts
will help not only those with whom we are in
affinity here but will reach beyond into the other
life where whole groups work toward a common
end. "Be true to your purpose and ours, and
help us build for light and progress," is there-
fore the great word.

The chief need on our part, after we have come
into awareness to some degree of the warfare
within and have begun to choose, is steady effort,
concentration, readiness to put the process
through to the end. We face the fact that our
conflicts are increased by the number of forces
to which we are subject. Yet every force play-
ing upon us can be turned to account, every one
can become a purpose; all forces being good,
can become so again, if made intelligent. There
has been a sundering of these forces, but now
there is an effort for unity again. What we
need to learn is the combination which makes for
construction or progress. We cannot always
waver between rebellion and progress, but must
eventually face one way or the other. Life it-
self is purpose. Our very selfhood or person-

114 The Open Vision

ality is purpose. What we need to do is to
recognize the activities at work within and mount
with them.

For force is life, life is active, and "force im-
prisoned becomes destruction. Good imprisoned
becomes evil. All are fundamentally good, fun-
damentally beneficent, but have become powers
for destruction through lack of progressive de-
velopment and exercise. All men are fusions of
many purposes, moved by many forces, answer-
ing to many calls. Each responds to the call of
his dominant purpose, which flows and fluctuates
with his life's struggle. One day he destroys,
and cares not. One day he builds, and marvels
at his power. One day he sleeps and forgets.
One day he fights to the death for a purpose he
had not yesterday, and loses tomorrow. This is
the life of man, and this our field of battle.
There are other lives, other struggles, other les-
sons to learn, but this is the first."

We are told that life in the spiritual world is
"more expansive," happier, more beautiful and
free, with a freer field for work, and greater love
and cooperation. Whole groups are there said
to be united in one purpose according to their
kind, growth being a matter of experience, not
of time, with "no age except experience." One
member of the group speaks of himself as "vitally
alive," engaged in far more effective service than

The Seven Purposes 115

when here. Another one, endeavoring to sug-
gest this greater vision with the power it brings,
says, "We so long to tell those whom we love not
to grieve. We are of you, as you are of us.
Even more closely than we were when I was
visibly with you." The life there is said to be
"pure spirit." To those in the flesh who receive
these messages there comes "new life, new force,
new purpose, new faith" through the touch with
pure spirit.

These spirits say that they do not see natural
things as we view them but their significance.
They see motives where we see appearances.
They see intentions and their variations, vitality
and its variations, disintegration or growth; and
they help us as directly as possible according to
what they see. They judge our purposes, for
example, by the vitality shown when we are
under strain. Thus they see the awakening pur-
poses, those that make for progress and are able
to help us in proportion to the vigor with which
the purpose is put into action. They have the
power to look ahead and foresee events to some
extent, that is, to grasp results. But unaware
of time as we know it, they watch and wait and
remember, steadily working with the greater
powers at their command to achieve their high
ends.

What helps us most to do our part in response

116 The Open Vision

to this cooperative endeavor in the other life, is
awareness of the real nature of the struggle such
that, learning what forces to shun, we hold fast
to those that lead to God, that is, the forces of
light, justice, production, truth, healing, build-
ing, and progress. The seven forces make for
perfect fearlessness, understanding, honesty,
sympathy, unity, growth, in short, for progress
as the great end. "The Eternal Purpose," "The
Force Beyond Perfection," or "The Great Pur-
pose," is the universal efficiency, while unity or
progress is the goal for the race. We need not
only to become aware of these seven purposes as
consciously chosen goals, making for eternal
progress, but to know their opposites, the deter-
rent or destructive forces which try to defeat
our efforts.

Thus envy, malice, doubt, falsehood, ignor-
ance, fear, lust, cupidity, oppose themselves to
the seven forces making for constructive de-
velopment. Within the self there are personal
motives impeding the higher promptings. Self-
interest, for example, excludes sympathy and
true unity, grief, resentment, bitterness, pas-
sivity, nervous apprehension, worry and fear bar
the way. We are helped by faith, which is said
to be a positive force, the thread that connects
us with those in the spiritual world who are aid-
ing us. Prayer "with an open mind" is positive

The Seven Purposes 117

help, the prayer that "begins and ends with a
determination not to yield to weakness, or fear,
or the disintegrating powers." And we are
helped by "actively constructive effort, con-
sciously united purpose and force." What we
call "nervous exhaustion" is due to a yielding on
our part to forces of disintegration. What we
need to acquire is the affirmative attitude. We
need "to get busy and buck up against" the
forces that we encounter in this effort to grow.
We should let go of dread, misgiving, unhappi-
ness. We should learn that true work is the con-
scious development of spiritual forces.

"The world fears purpose that is free and fear-
less. All the forces of humanity are turned
against freedom. The church imposes its creed,
the class imposes its caste, the profession im-
poses its etiquette, the moralist imposes his fear,
the libertine imposes his folly. All men are
bound by the conventions of church, caste, pro-
fession or moral status. Thus do they throw
wide the door to forces of disintegration. Each
man assumes a purpose not his own; a force that
is his own deserts him."

It would be no real help if those in the spirit-
ual world who see our situation in this struggle
for freedom should try to save us from the conse-
quences of our choice. They may suggest, en-
lighten, encourage, but cannot bear our burdens.

118 The Open Vision

If we are perturbed it is difficult for those who
would help us to reach our spirits. There is
every reason to be calm and serene no matter
what happens to disturb us. We should keep
as free as possible from disturbing contacts, fight-
ing ever with the forces of light and life, sticking
to our central purpose with firm faith. The
only possible failure comes from admitting doubt,
disintegration, and fear. Doubt is always
negative and deterrent. Sorrow is never con-
structive. A definite purpose in life affords
great protective power. Love is the one great
consideration, the love which lasts eternally and
unites us according to our purpose. Love finds
a way to make itself known to dear ones in this
world even though malevolent and crafty forces
intervene.

The central teaching of the book is called "a
gospel of unity and cooperation." Cooperation
is said to be the basic principle of all progress.
The step from knowledge of the conflict we are
under because of the opposing forces is to aware-
ness of our freedom and its great possibilities
through wise choice, then the really great step is
brotherhood in fellowship with our kind working
"for kindred purposes."

"Today, the first essential of brotherhood is
freedom. Freedom to think, freedom to believe,
freedom to strive, freedom to develop, from

The Seven Purposes 119

highest to lowest. . . . The man who has free-
dom of thought, freedom of purpose, freedom of
action, is free, though he is a pauper, and is free
to choose whether he will build or destroy. The
man who is bound by any tie that dictates his
thought, belief , or action is a force of disintegra-
tion, because he may not follow his purpose freely
and with all his force. The man who has free-
dom and wealth, and forgets his brother, is a
force of disintegration. . . . There are many
phases of development, each looking on to the
next. If a man climb without envy, forgetting
himself in his purpose, he shall climb far. . . .
Bear ye one another's burdens is a command un-
changed and unchangeable. Give unto each his
opportunity to grow, and to build and progress.
Freedom to strive is the one right inherent in ex-
istence, the strong and the weak each following
his own purpose, with all his force, to the one
great end. And he who binds or limits his
brother's purpose binds himself now and here-
after. But he who extends his brother's oppor-
tunity builds for eternity."

There are many passages in the lessons which
are already so concise that no further summary
can well be made of them. Some of these strike
deeply into the heart of the present social unrest,
cutting right and left into cherished activities
supposably making for brotherhood. The aim

120 The Open Vision

of these instructions is to arouse each man to the
manifold circumstances of life in which he ap-
pears to be working for his brother's good, and
show him what true freedom is. No man is in
reality free who fails to command himself in any
emergency, who fails to carry his share of the
common load and to find his way amidst all the
tendencies to luxury and mere wealth. It no
longer suffices to feed men "husks of brother-
hood." We should forget the class and re-
member the man, forget the labor and remember
the fruit, "forget the temple and remember God."
We must remember that the forces of light are
positive, therefore "shun negation . . . shun
dependence" and work together as individuals,
consciously cooperating, not as sheep. "A great
brotherhood is possible only when its component
parts are great. . . . Brotherhood is purpose of
progress, not purpose of profit. Brotherhood is
made beautiful by unity, not by schism.
Brotherhood suffereth long and is kind.
Brotherhood regardeth every brother, great and
small. Brotherhood waiteth on brother and
grumbleth not. All build together the common
home of all."

To some the term "purpose" as used through-
out this volume may seem abstract if not forbid-
ding. When, for example, the human person-
ality is identified with force and a strong person-

The Seven Purposes 121

ality is spoken of as a force we seem to lose part
of the idea of the self. So too when God is re-
duced to "The Force Beyond Perfection" we
appear to have lost the idea of God as love and
wisdom. But there is a certain advantage in us-
ing the same term throughout since it gives us
an insight into the central state of affairs with
man. We all stand in need of an intellectual
scheme which simplifies matters so that we may
see where we stand. Life is just such a contrast
between the destructive and the constructive.
We are all held in equilibrium until we choose.
We are all making selective judgments for
better or worse. Few of us realize to what a
large extent we are negative. We need a defi-
nite principle to live by through which we may
bring matters to a focus. Granted all this we
may supply what is lacking from other sources,
correcting the idea of "purpose" by our rich ideas
of the self, and seeing in the purposes which make
for perfection a sign of the divine providence.

The significance of this book lies in the ad-
vance indicated in contrast with other books pur-
porting to contain messages from the beyond.
It should help some who have lost friends by
death to see in what sense a man can still be pro-
foundly alive and full of power to help. The
teachings given are obviously disinterested, al-
though not by any means so important as might

122 The Open Vision

appear. They are not theological in form, but
may be useful in a non-doctrinal age. Little
light is thrown on the real meaning of death and
the spiritual life as a new birth. But granted
the intellectual outlines, one may spiritualize them
and show how far this teaching is acceptable.
One could not rationally infer that it is necessary
to seek messages from beyond. One finds in this
book no substitute for interior growth and the
cultivation of intuition. It takes us no nearer the
open vision as the spiritual standard. But its
publication at this time, and the wide reading
which it has received, are signs that we are ap-
proaching a period of greater spiritual coopera-
tion. It is significant too because in common
with "The Hill of Vision" it discloses a spiritual
view of the war. The latter book begins in a
sense where "The Seven Purposes" ends, and
substitutes for the idea of contrasted forces a
more illuminating view of the contest between
Matter and Spirit, Self and God.

IX

PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION

We frequently remind ourselves that a book
containing truths of value for daily life is condi-
tioned by the mind of the writer and the circum-
stances under which it was produced. If written
several generations ago, we say that the book
necessarily partakes of the age in which it was
written, the customs and beliefs then prevalent,
the language employed, with its peculiar terms
and symbols. Narrowing matters down to a
comparison between books, we say that any idea
or teaching, however high its origin, is accom-
modated to the mind of the writer, and we find
different books by writers of the same age differ-
ing radically. A book is likely to be free and
impartial in certain respects, and biased in others.
The peculiarities of the author's mind, his per-
sonal sentiments, his habits of thought, are likely
to qualify all that he says. For better or worse
he has a way of taking life, and this may influ-
ence his most dispassionate teachings. The lan-
guage he uses depends on an author's education,
his habits of expression, his modes of arranging
ideas, his style. In short, he has temperament,

123

124* The Open Vision

' — — — — — — — i — — i 1 1 — — — — ^— — ——————— — — — ^

as the artists say. The personal equation must
be understood and allowances made for it. So
far as we can see this is true of even the most en-
lightened books, and it is noticeably true of cer-
tain books in the Bible.

Why should we not apply the same method
of literary interpretation to books purporting to
contain messages from the other world? And
why not go still further and point out that the
teachings of an alleged communicating spirit de-
pend in considerable measure upon the ideas he
held before he left the body? Thus a man hold-
ing a certain combination of views acquired dur-
ing a life-time on earth might well produce such
books as "Letters of a Living Dead Man," and
"War Letters of a Living Dead Man." Thus
men of prominence in the field of psychical re-
search might turn about when reaching the other
world and begin to communicate such views as
we find expressed in recent works by devotees of
psychical research. The question would be
whether there is anything in such communica-
tions which may have been carried over the
border.

Three hypotheses are open to us to consider
with regard to books purporting to contain com-
munications. Such a book may be a product of
the mind of a writer in the flesh projected around
the personality of some one formerly living here.

Principles of Interpretation 125

The ideas attributed to the person in question
may have some basis of fact, and the author may
have had psychical experiences of real value.
But inadvertently the mind may have built a
large intellectual structure on a slight founda-
tion. The habit of conversing with oneself may
have developed so far beyond self-conscious
observation that a part of the self may have
come as it were to speak for the alleged disearn-
ate spirit, while another part may act as ques-
tioner, recipient and scribe. One is strongly in-
clined to believe that this is the case in a book
like "The Open Door," which merely gives back
a type of belief already held by the writer. So
a book on vibrations attributed to a Dutch bishop
of the seventeenth century may be the author's
way of setting forth the theory in question. One
is inclined to believe that any communication
said to come from a person who lived on earth
more than thirty years ago is a sheer product of
the mind of the author here in the flesh. One
takes little interest in alleged descriptions of life
on twentieth century "planes" where, at will, the
writer can summon famous men of the past as
teachers.

Again, one may hold that the original mes-
sage on the whole is from the communicating
spirit, but that many of the subsequent statements
attributed to that source are supplied by the

126 The Open Vision

earthly penman. If, for instance, a writer re-
ceives a few sentences containing views in accord
with those which he already cherishes as true, it
would be a simple matter unwittingly to enlarge
upon these and to produce a book based on them.
Inasmuch as habits of thought go with a given
theory of life, all that is needed to propound a
theory is a cardinal idea sufficiently persuasive
to arouse an author's mind into activity. Thus
if an author, already accustomed to producing
works of fiction and books on theosophy receives
a brief message from the beyond and becomes ac-
customed to the process of automatic writing,
it might be a simple matter to give forth a whole
volume as if it came from the same source.
Believers in theosophy might find it credible and
apparently wholly genuine. Others, who adopt
a different view of the future life, might find
little in it that could be accepted as a genuine
message from the other life.

One is perfectly free however to entertain the
hypothesis that a book is wholly by the communi-
cating spirit, that is to say, as much of the book
as can intelligibly be regarded as from beyond,
in view of the theory that only the pictographic
process is transmitted, while the actual words are
supplied by the earthly penman. The main
ideas might come from the communicating spirit,
while the secondary ideas, the modes of express-

Principles of Interpretation 127

ion, illustrations and symbols, might come for
the most part from the scribe at this end of the
process. One would be safe in making liberal
allowances for the portions unconsciously con-
tributed by the writer using the pencil or employ-
ing other means. A book like "Private Dowd-
ing," for example, might be mostly from the
other world, might give a very genuine account
of experiences preceding and following death.
It would then have value for us according to our
beliefs on the matters which it discloses.

In any case a book would take on prevalent
ideas, and we would naturally interpret it by
reference to the writer's mind and life. The fact
that a book is attributed to some one in the other
world is no ground for expecting that its wisdom
will excel that of books produced on earth by
gathering facts and drawing inferences. As
long as books said to come from the beyond dis-
close radically different views of that life, we are
in the same situation as in our ordinary com-
parisons of conflicting books on theosophy, re-
ligion, philosophy, and the like. A book pro-
pounding one's favorite view might tend to con-
firm us in that view simply because it is said to
be supernatural in origin. On the other hand,
we might well remind ourselves that the test of
any theory is truth, not the origin of the book
which contains it, not the authority of the writer

128 The Open Vision

or the value of the method by which the book
is produced.

We sometimes wonder whether a book contain-
ing alleged messages could be interpreted as
pure fiction. We raise this doubt because we
know what marvellous skill writers of fiction pos-
sess in their graphic portrayals. It is at least
suspicious that some of the most widely read
books on psychical matters were produced by
writers of fiction. But granting for the moment
that a work is fictitious, a writer would naturally
make use of the best available material concern-
ing the other life, that the book might seem
plausible. Some of the ideas might be pro-
foundly true, although the writer may never
have had a message from the beyond. Others
might be misleading and the incidents as far
from plausible as those narrated in "Thy Son
Liveth." The book might have a certain value
in the present widespread effort to make the
other life seem real. We might come as near
reality in fact as in the case of books said to con-
tain actual descriptions of the future life.

On the other hand, a book like Carrington's
"Psychical Phenomena and the War," might
appeal to us with greater force, since it contains
incidents gathered from soldiers and others on
this side of the border. It shows us that psychi-
cal experiences in war-time are like those of any

Principles of Interpretation 129

other time. For example, there are accounts of
premonitions of events about to happen, guid-
ances that came to the soldiers in danger, and
evidences of inner visions. Whatever one may
believe concerning the objective reality of such
visions as "the Angel of Mons" or "the Being in
White," one may hold that subjectively at least
the experiences were real. Some of us who were
in the war-zone learned that when a man is face
to face with the greatest dangers, with death al-
ways near at hand, he may be more readily lifted
above his ordinary consciousness than usual.
For silence, or inner receptivity under favorable
conditions, is not by any means the only open
channel to psychical experience.

As readers we of course judge all books on
psychical matters by our education, tempera-
ment, favorite ideas, and especially our experi-
ences. We are all inclined to retain beliefs
which interest us, which confirm what is familiar
because it is familiar, because we have long held
the beliefs in question without doubts, or because
our creed is taught by people of whom we ap-
prove. All the usual standards of criticism are
useful. But it is also profitable to renounce
criticism and construct a conception of the future
life to explain the difficulties of communication.
If we gain nothing more from the attempt, we
may at least grow in knowledge of the present

130 The Open Vision

life. In the long run the more truly we know
the present the better prepared we are to inter-
pret views pertaining to the future life.

If we have concluded that there is no time in
the other life, as we mark time, we no longer
expect precise statements on temporal matters;
and we see why prophets all through history have
failed in so far as they undertook to tell the pre-
cise comings and goings of the realities of the
spirit. If spiritual states or motives are the
clues by which spirits judge and are judged, then
the principle of correspondence between inward
states and external expression undoubtedly
holds true. Inasmuch as people differ enorm-
ously while here, we should expect at least as
many types in the other life. Well informed in
the idea of the discrete degrees or differences be-
tween natural and spiritual things, between the
human and the divine, we should naturally guard
against the tendency of many current teachings
on psychical matters to blur distinctions.

Yet, whatever the contrasts between the
worlds, there must be a sense in which the inner
processes of life in the individual are continuous.
The future life surely begins where the present
ceases, so far as character rs concerned. There
must then be a period of readjustment before life
under the new conditions can fairly begin.
This would hardly be the sometime intermediate

Principles of Interpretation 131

state called "purgatory," but as a "world of
spirits" it would hold those who have recently
"gone West," who are getting their bearings, en-
deavoring to continue their customary occupa-
tions and to maintain their former associa-
tions. The idea of such a state was not theoreti-
cally necessary while people believed that spirits
after death would easily drop into hell as a place,
or as easily attain heaven by a running high
jump. But now that we believe in law and or-
der we have no reason for saying that a person
could either drop or jump. Nor can we reason-
ably say that spirits bidding their old associates
adieu may quickly select their new ones. We
cannot postulate a high degree of self -conscious-
ness on the part of our race as a whole. Indeed
we may safely say that exceedingly few have any
idea when they leave this world where they be-
long. The idea is unescapable nowadays that
there must be a period of awakening, with sur-
prises for many a new arrival. If we may
judge in any way by the extreme moderation
with which men and women come to judgment
in this world, we may hazard the statement that
the process of adjustment is a long one with the
majority. For it would not be a mere process
of self-knowledge but also one of choice between
motives, the wise course to pursue, the associates
to mingle with, the work to do, and the far-off
objective to put before the eyes of the spirit.

132 The Open Vision

It is reasonable to infer that in this awakening
many spirits turn rather towards their former
abode than towards those destinations popularly
called heaven and hell. If we may judge by
what writers tell us who claim to have learned
most about the spiritual world, spirits seeking
communication with people in the flesh are more
interested in the life here than in any other, or
more concerned at least to help people here.

This would explain in part at least the inferi-
ority of many communications, and the low order
of nearly every psychical manifestation through
mediums. What comes to us through such
channels may be compared to those curious first
impressions which our friends write home from
foreign lands, when their letters are filled with
personal sentiments concerning peoples whom
they have scarcely begun to appreciate. We
know that our friends who remain for years in a
foreign land return with ideas differing radically
from their early impressions. So in the spirit-
ual world, granting that something can be told
about the life there, first impressions would be
of very slight value in case of the average mind.
Only the highly developed would have anything
worth communicating, and these might be wise
enough to say but little to us, save to make it
known that life is progress for them.

If it be "the world of spirits" that is adjoined

Principles of Interpretation 133

to us here on earth, we would hardly expect to
receive celestial wisdom, and what heavenly
knowledge might come to us would be mediated
to our present states. This seems disappointing
at first thought, for we have not expected the
angels to be silent. On second thought, how-
ever, the idea is illuminating. On earth we
know that all knowledge is mediated to us, and
we know that we cannot convey ideas even to
our own children before their development en-
ables them to respond to the wisdom we would
give them. Our lips are often sealed when
speaking with people in general, lest what we
might say be profaned.

Of one principle we may be absolutely sure,
namely, that no benevolent spirit would ever say
or do anything to us that would deprive us of
our freedom and rationality. Inasmuch as it is
these priceless possessions of our nature which
underlie individuality, and as individuality is
sacred, we have every reason in the world to close
the door against any psychical experience tend-
ing to deprive us of this the basis of our spiritual
integrity. Whatever influence or teaching tends
toward unqualified receptivity or mediumship is
so far wrong. There is even greater reason for
abstaining from such practices within the world
of the self than for guarding against contamin-
ations in the external world. If with good

134 The Open Vision

reason we endeavor to keep ourselves "pure and
unspotted from the world," with all possible
reason we should dedicate our interior self to the
highest sources discoverable.

Is it worth while then to read any of these new
books on psychical matters? Certainly, that we
may see whither thought is tending in this direc-
tion, and that we may help people through the
psychical thickets, that they may see the light
which has come to the world through the open
vision. Moreover, we have standards by which
to judge, when it is a question of teachings that
are eligible. We have the inner or spiritual
meaning of the better parts of the Bible: in the
Bible we have the same contrasts here pointed out
between the spurious and the genuine. We have
the most rational and illumined teachings to be
found in books devoted to inner perception or
seer ship. We have the best wisdom our own
experience has disclosed, when we have followed
inner guidance instead of curiosity or the mere
motive of the investigator. Then too we have
knowledge of the fruits or consequences which
have come to people round about us. All these
considerations may combine to give us a standard
or "inner dictate."

For example, if we hold that it is well for
people to become aware of the inner war as "The
Seven Purposes" describes it, we may then

Principles of Interpretation 135

raise the question, What is the step to be taken
after we have learned the value of the affirmative
attitude? What does it mean to be positive in
the best sense of the word? Naturally, we can-
not learn this lesson on the mere level of pur-
poses. It is not a psychical question. One
must come in touch with greater power than the
psychical in order to close the door to all that is
alien and undesirable in the inner world. Nor is
it a mere question of success. It is in my spirit-
ual integrity that I am positive, in my whole
true self, and in this self I am veritably strong
only so far as I choose God's guidance for me
instead of my own or the world's. It is "the
God and one who make a majority" that I seek.
I am positive when I am unselfish, when en-
deavoring to live up to the normal ideal, when en-
gaged in service quickened by love to God and
man. I am positive when doing my own real
work in the world.

If then I find through psychical experience or
the reading of books on psychical matters that I
am too yielding, that my spiritual life is mostly
potential, my responses to opportunity mild and
moderate; let me launch myself with greater
impetus in work for others, meeting them more
than half way. I need not linger in the psychi-
cal world. What I need to do is to live affirm-
atively by what I believe, realizing that in the

136 The Open Vision

direction of the spiritual work I can do in the
world there is no. obstacle. Then psychical
matters will adjust themselves. Then I shall
see the more clearly what is sound and true, what
people should seek in order to find their way
through the thickets of the inner world into the
light of the divine day.

X

THE HUMAN SPIRIT

The endeavor to understand psychical experi-
ences and press on beyond them to knowledge
of the open vision is greatly aided by studying
the human spirit. But there are two tendencies
of thought in our day which make such study
extremely difficult. We have tended to reduce
the soul or spirit to mental processes, and then
to explain these by reference to the brain. Thus
psychology becomes physiological and we lose
sight of the spirit altogether, there appears to
be no individual worth studying and no soul to
survive. Again, some of us have become so at-
tached to the theory of subconsciousness that the
centre of interest has dropped below the thresh-
old of mental life. We seem to have persuaded
ourselves that the submerged portion of our na-
ture is more significant than the active or con-
scious self. Having shifted the interest in this
way, we now try to explain every psychical ex-
perience on the supposition that the deeper self
has somehow played us false. We are afraid
of involuntary suggestions and the ideas which
may have stealthily combined themselves in the

137

138 The Open Vision

secret recesses of this wonderful subliminal re-
gion. It is almost as unfortunate to sell our
souls to the subconscious as to sell them to
materialism.

We may well disregard the physiological ten-
dency for the most part, leaving it to be de-
veloped by those who have little interest in men-
tal life save in its relation to sense-processes.
The other hypothesis is valuable if not carried
so far that we scarcely dare to say that our
souls are our own. The larger part of our self-
hood is of course at any given moment inactive,
that is unconscious. Many of the activities of
which we are conscious have unconscious cor-
relates which we might inquire into to advan-
tage. Eut we know nothing about the subcon-
scious except by inference from what we dis-
cover through consciousness. The spirit as we
gradually come to know it through the passing
years is intelligible as a conscious being rather
than as a hidden being. My character, for ex-
ample, although not just now active in full de-
gree, is chiefly what my most actively conscious
deeds have made it. I must be conscious to be
responsible. If I am to develop as a moral be-
ing I must choose. Even though I possess a
secret place where God enters my interior self-
hood without knocking, I am able to make use
of this knowledge of my spiritual selfhood only

The Human Spirit 139

■ — «— i i ■ .in' ■ i ■ I. ————————— — —

so far as I act, and regard my interior self as a
part of my true personality in the sphere of
conduct. I am never likely to know by direct
perception whether the eyes of my spirit are
open. But if I have evidence that there is such
a power as inner sight, and if I learn to lift my
spirit into spiritual light in order to receive guid-
ance, this conscious activity on my part will be
the decisive consideration; not those processes
which are subconscious.

Indeed, the whole meaning of my experience
in this world turns upon the fact that through
consciousness what is within me is brought "into
the open," that I may recognize and take ac-
count of hidden motives, desires, tendencies, and
the ruling passions likely to determine my future.
The idea of the spirit is built up within me as I
proceed. On the surface of it the spirit seems
so far dependent on the body that it is a struggle
at times not to be persuaded that my mental
states are determined as well as conditioned by
the bodily organism. In actual feeling I tend to
remain in that state of confusion between mind
and body in which most people remain through-
out their lives. But I am not persuaded by de-
terminism, say what you will about the depend-
ence of the mind on the brain. Something in
me refuses to yield. I am unwilling to stop with
a study of sense-processes. I insist that you

140 The Open Vision

1 " ' ' ' m

shall take account of every activity in my nature,
including conscience, intuition, and all the evi-
dences for the open vision.

Moreover, there are many respects in which
the spirit is sharply contrasted with the body,
and all these are profoundly significant. Every-
thing in the body is in constant process of change
or renewal, a process in which the down-wearing
tendency may sometime triumph over the up-
building and set the spirit free through the
death of the body. The spirit must be at least
potentially immortal, there must be an element
in it which cannot die, and if the spirit is to enter
"the everlasting life" it must be in some degree
in that life now. Why should I not give heed
to those considerations which point to the exist-
ence of the spirit as incapable of dying, that I
may come to recognize myself as the being which
spiritual wisdom declares I am?

If, for example, we are right in assuming that
the inner experience is what is most real in all
genuine psychical phenomena, if experiences by
direct impression awaken the spiritual nature in
us, we may infer that the spirit's interior powers
function independently of matter. The simplest
experience in thought-transference should show
me that the inner senses can operate indepen-
dently of space, and by an interior or higher
kind of activity. Other developments, such as

The Human Spirit 141

km li.ilii nil. !■■■— 1 — — Mil— ^— ■— i ■■ uwil n ■■nil i I I ■■■ muiwi.h) ■ .ii-i ■ ri i 1 1— — — mim — «BM— WW— »

the power to gain information intuitively at a
distance or to see things clairvoyantly, will add
to my growing conception of the spirit. If the
spirit be in any way related to spirits in the
spiritual world, it has at least a point of contact
with the other world. If it also communes with
the "saints" in the slightest degree, the spirit
possesses much more than a point of contact.
We have only to take one step farther to con-
clude that the most intelligible way to state our
whole real inner experience is to say that in our
spirits we already dwell in the spiritual world,
we already function in that world in part.

Again, we learn to discriminate between the
spirit and the body through intimate knowledge
of the affections. Knowing'that bodily instincts
are strong and aware that there is such an in-
fluence as sexual attraction, we make manifold
allowances, we learn to guard against subtle con-
fusions between love and bodily desire. Desire
we well know is insatiable and insistent, but the
spirit restrains and regulates the desires, with an
ideal in view. Those who love deeply live much
in their feelings and are inclined to become crea-
tures of passing states and transitory impulses,
but the spirit seeks constancy as the goal. In-
fatuation simulates love, but the spirit is thereby
aroused to know the differences between "falling
in love" and being in love. Desires, expressing

142 The Open Vision

the body, crave expression on their own level;
but we learn to sublimate them and find modes of
expression which we call spiritual. Self-cen-
teredness is often largely physical and we readily
tend to become selfish through the dominance of
bodily desires; but in time we learn to draw
sharp lines of contrast in favor of the better self
we will to become. People of a highly con-
scientious nature often condemn themselves for
evil impulses not in any sense due to the spirit,
but they learn to attribute these to the selfish
bodily affections. Fatigue settles down upon us
and we neglect the heart-promptings of our
better nature, but in time we make allowances
for these transitory feelings. The feeling of age
is chiefly from the body, and we know that by
contrast the heart never grows old and love never
becomes an old story. Finally, we are helped
in all human relationships pertaining to the af-
fections by noting what love is when quickened
by ideals in quest of beauty, truth, goodness;
when prompted by love for God; in the re-
sponses of the human heart to the Father's love
for man. Such love is remarkably constant and
looks forward to eternity for fulfillment. So
might our friendships be if based on inner af-
finity. We might come to know and love people
because of their spiritual spheres. We might
grow into intimate knowledge of whole groups

The Human Spieit 143

■ ■— — — ■ ■■— — — — — ■*

of people with whom we are inwardly in accord.
This endeavor to discriminate the spirit from
the body is furthered also by noting the differ-
ences between mind and brain. Let us ask,
What is the use of the brain? It gathers and
records impressions based on instinct, habit,
memory. It is essentially a motor organ active
in the care, welfare and continued existence of
the body. It is the organ for the co-ordination of
motor impulses and impressions for practical
ends. It is the seat of sense-processes, to which
sensations, feelings of pleasure and pain corres-
pond in the mind. Thus the mind is brought
in relation with the world, the mind is the sum-
total of processes which relate the spirit with the
external or natural world. But the brain is also
the organ for receiving impulses from the mind
and translating them into action through what
we call "the sense of effort," the strongest mo-
tive or desire which is permitted to rule. Hence
on the bodily side the brain is the instrument for
initiating action, notably in the formation of
habits. The mind issues the fiat or command, has
the picture or thought of the desired end in view,
pays attention and selects the objects in which it
is interested in response to the prevalent will or
affection within the spirit; while the resulting
changes occur within the brain, the nervous and
muscular systems. "The spiritual clothes itself

144 The Open Vision

' • ' — — — ' — — — — *

with the natural as a man clothes himself with
a garment."

The processes of the brain accompany, influ-
ence and condition mental life, but the corres-
pondence between cerebral events and mental
states is inexact. Many activities occur in the
mind which have nothing to resemble them in
the brain. For example, when the body is in
repose and the mind is given over to the study of
a problem in mathematics or logic, that is, the
comparison of ideas in the mind's own world,
ideas which may indeed represent the relation-
ships of material events but are different in kind
from anything the outer world discloses as a
"thing," a tissue or cell. Again, activities take
place in the brain through its systems of habits
to which consciousness or mind does not corres-
pond. We once acquired our habits, but con-
sciousness has ceased to attend them and is con-
cerned with new or higher interests. Our ideas
tend to express themselves in action, for man is
a practical being; but, leaving bodily activities
to care for themselves for the most part, man
gives his thought to many matters which never
find expression in conduct. On the side of the
brain there is often conduct or action of mechani-
cal types, while on the side of the mind there
are preferences, feelings, radically different from
them. The body through the brain is under

The Human Spirit 145

normal conditions a willing servant of the mind,
which in turn is the instrument for control,
efficiency, volition.

What is the use of the mind? It experiences
sense-impressions, feelings of pleasure-pain, im-
pulses struggling into action, and other states
which correspond though not exactly with pro-
cesses taking place in the brain. These sense-
impressions, stored away, combine through asso-
ciation, are perceived, thought about, selected
with reference to proposed lines of action, and
are interpreted according to one's view of life.
By choosing between diverse impulses, desires,
images, plans for action, and paying attention to
those that are eligible, the mind increases the
power of the latter, while checking or inhibiting
other plans. Thus the mind overcomes unde-
sirable emotions, such as fear, anger, jealousy.
The mind is to a large extent shaped by the
prevailing interest. It is a dynamic selective
instrument. It makes effort in favor of desired
ends, at the behest of the spirit, and so initiates
action — on its mental side. It is strongly in-
fluenced by instincts, such as the instinct for self-
preservation and the sexual nature. Adapta-
tion to environment is a considerable part of its
function. Its ideas have less and less corres-
pondence with outward things as its processes
turn inward* for example, in self -observation,

146 The Open Vision

self-consciousness, the weighing of motives for
moral reasons, philosophical thought about re-
ality in contrast with appearances, mathematical
and logical processes.

That is to say, intellectual, moral and spiritual
life goes on within us. This is what we call "the
life of the soul" or spirit in the truer sense of
the word. The presence of altruistic motives
puts the inner life in greatest contrast with de-
sires which connect the body selfishly with the
world. The mind has a well-nigh inexhaustible
supply of incentives and interests in its effort to
overcome the flesh, to master the love of self and
of the world. Thus regarded the mind is the
series of processes which express and imply the
existence of the soul or spirit. We may think
of the spirit as the centre of all mental powers
on the inner side, in contrast with the brain which
is the centre for the co-ordination and distribu-
tion of motor impulses on the mind's outer side.
The soul is the basis or centre of character in
contrast with mere disposition or temperament,
which may be largely physical. It is the seat
of the will, the ruling love, the purpose in life.
The soul is dependent on its mental processes for
knowledge of the outer world, but its knowledge
is partly due to its own contributions by virtue
of its powers of freedom and rationality. So too
character is partly the result of activities spring-

The Human Spirit 147

ing from within, as the soul meets and faces the
impulses which are brought in from the body.

To make this contrast between mind and brain
is to run counter to much that appears to be
decisive in the phenomena of habit, hence we
need to look more closely at the structure of
habit as we find it described in Professor James'
famous chapter on the subject.1 What corre-
sponds, we may ask, on the mental side to the
plasticity of the brain through which habits are
acquired at favorable, junctures in a person's
life? Let us call it spontaneity or openness, a
factor which varies greatly with different indi-
viduals according to the degree in which educa-
tion has been permitted to impose upon them.
Since it is "the first step that counts," our habits
must have been originated through effort in the
pursuit of ends, as when the mind is applied in
the process of learning to play a musical instru-
ment.

On the lower side there is effort needed to set
the brain into activity in the desired direction.
On the upper side there is will striving to realize
a purpose. If we keep our spirits young — that
is, remember to live by the fact that the spirit
always is young — if we keep our minds open to
conviction and intuition, spontaneity finds ex-
pression in conduct throughout our life-time.

i "Principles of Psychology," Vol. I.

148 The Open Vision

But the majority of us lose our inner freedom
and literally become "creatures of habit." Al-
though we still continue to fight, our choices seem
more and more limited by earlier choices made
when we were less intelligent and when we were
too greatly influenced, either at home or in
school, by the creeds of the churches or by the
world. In the nervous system "function makes
the organ, and the nervous system grows to the
modes in which it has been exercised." We seem
to be spinning the web of our own fate, never
to be undone. But if with Professor James we
"keep the faculty of effort alive by a little
gratuitous exercise each day," we may make our
nervous system our ally instead of our enemy,
preserving spontaneity and keeping our spirits
open in the spiritual direction.

If when we gain a new impetus we "launch
ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative
as possible," if we "never suffer an exception to
occur till the new habit is rooted in our life,"
we may make new choices and launch our efforts
with success. Man is a creature of habits largely
because old habit-systems, persisting from youth
and later years, rise into activity in contact with
new systems, and tend to become dominant as
man grows old in the usual conservative ways.
There is always a struggle for survival, and often
it is the strongest not the most fit motive, force,

The Human Spirit 149

or habit that survives. The question then is,
How can we make our new habits so effective
that they shall triumph? Since habits survive
partly by use and tend to fall away if unused
through lack of attention or interest, we have a
very definite clue to follow. Thus we come to
realize afresh that the mind is a centre of strug-
gle between destructive and constructive forces,
and that we must become deeply aware of the
warfare within us if we would foster the inner
life with its spontaneities, its relationship to
spiritual realities, and its possibilities of recover-
ing the open vision.

But the end is not yet. Habit is so strong
that appearances seem to indicate that the mind
is merely an automaton. It is well to push the
hypothesis as far as possible and see that in very
truth the mind is selective, efficient, and actively
pursues ends contrary to those suggested by the
flesh. This makes of the brain "an instrument
of possibilities," as some one has encouragingly
called it, instead of a prison-house. The struc-
ture of habit as found in each of us is precisely
what we might expect on the supposition that
the spirit is really efficacious. The mind from a
biological point of view is chiefly of use in en-
abling the individual to survive in the struggle
for life. But from a moral and spiritual point
of view its use lies in enabling the spirit to hold

150 The Open Vision

its own and to rise to great opportunities. Some-
times the brain is indeterminate, and the spirit
is able to act with decisive suddenness. Its great
opportunity is to reinforce the favorable possi-
bilities and repress the unfavorable ones.

We note then that on purely psychological
grounds the question of interaction between
mind and brain cannot be settled. No appear-
ance can prove the mind to be an automaton. We
always insist with good reason that we are not
machines, that the mind is far more than a flame
fitfully accompanying the brain. The fact that
we make effort and that desired results come
about must be accounted for. No mere study
of the brain and its processes ever tells us what
is right and wrong. Despite all efforts to ignore
this truth, we feel that the spirit is free and re-
sponsible. The facts of habit can be reasonably
interpreted in favor of the view here urged that
habits are initiated through the mind and that
we might with a better set of beliefs keep our-
selves alive and open.

It is well, however, frequently to remind our-
selves that many activities do indeed take place
automatically, that automatisms tend to play us
false; hence that we may generate new habits
without intending to do so. Moreover, there is
truth in the theory that thoughts well up out of
our subconsciousness and influence action with-

The Human Spirit 151

out our awareness or consent. Thus the hand
may automatically move a table, a ouija-board
or a pencil; and the thoughts may be chiefly
supplied out of our own minds and the minds of
others present. What we need is a kind of sub-
attentiveness such that we shall catch our or-
ganisms in the act of playing us false, as I have
indicated elsewhere in describing experiences
which might have been misleading.1 If inclined
to forget that automatic actions always go on,
whatever else may take place in our mental life,
it would be well for us to return to a study of
books in which experiences ordinarily interpreted
differently are explained on the basis of auto-
matisms and unconscious cerebration; for ex-
ample, Carpenter's * 'Mental Physiology," a work
which was once profoundly influential in giving
shape to prevailing views.

What we must insist on above all is that the
spirit shall have full recognition, that we give
place in our theory of the inner life to all sources
of experience. In the last analysis the funda-
mental fact is the existence of our own conscious-
ness, with its contents and its elements. That
is the immediate fact. Hence the direct im-
pressions or actual states we experience are mat-
ters of first significance. If we can narrow our
analysis down to these, we shall have a sure basis

i "On the Threshold of the Spiritual World," p. 288.

152 The Open Vision

on which to proceed. The rest is a question of
interpretation. In our interpretation we have
a perfectly good right to draw upon the best
sources we can find for guidance in studying the
human spirit. We have a right to believe in in-
tuition and its deliverances, searching our own
experiences for evidence. We have a right to
believe in inner guidance and to follow it to the
end. We have good reason for holding to our
conviction that there is a secret place within us
which God may enter. In fact, without this
principle of interpretation on the higher side of
our nature we can make no real headway at all
in the effort to understand the human spirit;
for everything turns upon the possession of a
higher or inner nature which lies open to the di-
vine love and wisdom, as the true basis of con-
trast.

If we say that "God is in man and, from the
inmost, is his life," that "God has created in man
receptacles and abodes for Himself, the one for
love, the other for wisdom," and that these are
the real sources of spirituality in him, then in-
deed we have ground for intelligent thought con-
cerning the human spirit. For we realize that it
is because of this priceless relationship to the di-
vine mind and heart that man is in "the image
and likeness of God." Truly to think and to
live from the spirit in him, would therefore be to

The Human Spirit 153

live and think from the divine order, not from the
psychical or the material. To possess the open
vision would be intuitively to live according to this
order, letting that vision disclose whatever is to
be followed. For whatever else man appears to
lack, he unmistakably possesses the power to close
or open the door to inner guidance, to take the
negative or the affirmative attitude, to act in
freedom according to what he accepts as true.

The spirit in man, in brief, is that by which
he truly lives, whatever appearance may seem to
contradict this reality. The spirit belongs to the
interior order or degree, while the body pertains
to the outer or natural order. We should re-
gard it in the first place from the point of view
of man's capacity to receive life from the spiritual
world, by "influx." Man has a spiritual mind,
not a subconscious but an interior mind. That
is the proper starting-point of our thought. The
contrast is between inner and outer rather than
between the subconscious and the self-conscious.
Man is by no means conscious of the interior re-
ceptivity of which his spirit is capable, but he
can become aware by experience of the difference
between the inner and outer phases of mental life.
He can at once begin to think in these terms, and
so prepare himself to discern the differences.
Granted some measure of thoughtfulness in this
regard, man is in a position the better to consider

154* The Open Vision

what part of his nature is active in psychical ex-
periences, and how the psychical may become a
means to the attainment of spiritual ends.

XI

DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS

Inevitably the mind wavers between doubt
and belief in the realm of psychical matters.
Most of us who have come into the light of clear
conviction have passed through periods of con-
flict in which we have combatted the testimony,
now of reason and now of experience, while hesi-
tating amidst various explanations offered by
leaders in this field. By common consent the
psychical field is the region in all human ex-
perience most likely to be beset with illusions,
if not delusions. Unluckily, impostures have
entered in under the guise of the cruder spirit-
ualism of the nineteenth century. Nothing
would be more unfortunate than to believe what
is not true concerning our departed friends. But
in a way nothing is so important as to learn
what we can for the sake of grieving and inquir-
ing ones who have lost friends and are endeavor-
ing to enter into communication with them. We
are eager to share our convictions. Yet we are
determined not to mislead. At one time we
freely tell what evidences have been given us, ad-
mitting that we believe in spirit-return. At an-

155

156 The Open Vision

other we are full of critical caution, lest we lead
people into bye-paths. What we have to give
might seem very nearly like "the higher spirit-
ualism," and yet we qualify and qualify. Thus
we come to believe in certain evidences and to
reject others, to read some books with approval
and to put down others forthwith as "dangerous."

The time has passed for generalizing. It is
a question of finding what is good or sound, not
of mere condemnation. It is no longer reason-
able to put one's seal on the whole subject as
sheer hallucination. Psychical research has
shown that these matters can be investigated in
the scientific spirit. What we need now to con-
sider more specifically is psychical experience as
known by the individual, that is, the inner phe-
nomena in contrast with the material manifesta-
tions by which the world once judged. When it
becomes a question of human personality with
the illusions to which the self is liable, our prob-
lems are no more difficult than those which beset
us on every hand when we try to be thorough in
our psychology, our study of "mental cases."

The chief reason for informing ourselves con-
cerning the illusions is found in the service we
may render to receptively organized people likely
to linger in psychical bye-paths instead of press-
ing on to knowledge of spiritual truths in the
clear light of the new day that is upon us. Un-

Difficulties and Objections 157

less we have found our way through the shadowy
places of the inner world, we cannot with sure
conviction indicate the path to that transfiguring
light which is the guide of every man born into
the world.

It would be a simple matter, with the special-
ist in "mental cases," to classify everything
psychical as sheer hallucination, then give our
whole attention to the body as the source of all
human disorders. The assumption would be
that there is no inner core of psychical reality at
all, no such power as intuition, no secret place of
the soul, and no inner perception or vision. The
individual who claims to have heard voices or to
have had a vision would then be judged in ad-
vance of all attempts to find out how real his
experiences seem to him. The sole difficulty
would be traced to his brain. To hold this point
of view is to classify psychical phenomena
without a hearing. The report of scientific in-
vestigators to the effect that psychical experi-
ences are widespread counts for nothing at all.

Yet, if the foregoing conception of psychical
experience is the true one, namely, that the real
matter for investigation is the inner experience
as felt by the individual, not its psycho-physical
associates and accompanying conditions, there is
every reason for taking up the point of view of
the individual and endeavoring to make it seem

158 The Open Vision

as real to ourselves as it seems to one who is led
to adopt it. There may be merely a core of re-
ality, and associated with this core there may be
illusions without number. But the question
turns upon the interpretation of the part that
is real. A person might for instance have an
auditory illusion coupled with a real inner ex-
perience worthy in every way of careful exam-
ination and thought. As observers we might be
exceedingly sceptical concerning the outward
signs of phenomena, yet have very good reason
for meeting the recipient of such experiences with
illuminating sympathy. We might discard
spiritualism in all its forms, yet have genuine
problems to face when undertaking to develop
an adequate explanation of the inner life.

We have been prone to judge inner experi-
ences by what we have heard about ghosts and
apparitions, and the trickery through which
credulous people have been misled. Our scep-
ticism has naturally been increased by all that
we have learned about hallucinations. We have
learned to our discomfiture that the average mind
cannot be trusted to tell precisely what is ob-
jectively real even when circumstantial evidence
is called for. Then too we are doubtful about
introspection and the imagination, about any one
who is in the least degree visionary.

Yet, who is able to cast the first stone? Every

Difficulties and Objections 159

ardent religious devotee of any persuasion what-
ever, intelligent or ignorant, is likely to take him-
self too seriously. In another way the advocate
of science or of theology may be equally strenu-
ous in insisting upon his particular interest. In
the last analysis we are all in practically the same
situation. For better or worse we use the same
mentality whatever we do, when worshiping or
driving a bargain, loving or hating, and in our
wildest fancies. We are in process of learning
what it is to be normal and sane. Within every
phase of life there are realities and appearances,
as in the typical instance of love and its counter-
feits. Our affections may run through the whole
scale from selfish passion to disinterested and
devoted love. We find no one able to explain
all mysteries. Experience is still our teacher.
What is high and noble in us finds expression
eventually.

To understand psychical experience in the case
of the given individual, you should learn what
level of intelligence he is on, and estimate his
experiences accordingly, indicating the next step
in his growth if you see it. He may be in a state
comparable to the one who "falls in love" instead
of rising, who is strongly inclined to put all the
blame on the woman. Life sends us home to
ourselves sooner or later, we come to know our
own weaknesses, the channels left open, the

160 The Open Vision

points of contact, the temptations that have a
basis of appeal within our own unregeneracy.
No one can persuade us of anything against
our natures. What we are concerned with is
what must be overcome, sublimated.

Psychical experiences which come to me un-
sought, that is, according to my guidance, are
for me to recognize and be instructed by. If
exceedingly sensitive and open, I may have more
than my supposed share of such experiences.
But if so, I shall have more protection too. But
if I dabble in such experiences I shall have a
high price to pay. I am supposed to have in-
telligence and to use it to the end. It is funda-
mentally a question of knowing one's own nature
and the way it may be strengthened. We can-
not close the door on evil intentioned beings and
angels alike, on all visions, impressions and
guidances, without defrauding our own nature.
It is a question of noting the highest experiences
that come. To understand these we must have
a standard. We are not proposing to give our-
selves to mere bye-play. There is a great dif-
ference between wisdom disclosed through the
open vision and supposed spiritual entities "pro*
jected on this plane."

Is it then orderly or contrary to order to have
communion with those who have entered the
spiritual world? We can no longer say unquali-

Difficulties and Objections 161

fiedly that it is contrary to divine order, because
we are learning that it is normal to have the open
vision, that material interests recede and once
more disclose spiritual realities when a new age
dawns. Our experiences will be orderly if they
come in line with the changes which have brought
us to the new age, that is, changes wrought from
the spiritual world in its higher degrees. It
would not be orderly if men sought psychical
power as such, without a guiding faith. We are
concerned with the divine providence, not with
motives of curiosity. We desire only those de-
velopments which will enable us the better to live
our life on earth in service to our fellowmen.
We close the door to all else.

It is doubtless true that the angels and spirits
who are with us are for the most part unaware
of this relationship, and wisely so, since havoc
might be wrought were they conscious. The
new arrivals in the spiritual world surely have
sufficient occupation in the process of coming
to judgment, and we would naturally refrain
from breaking in upon them. But there may be
more enlightened ones, still in touch with us on
earth, who do know that they are present with
us, who are permitted to cooperate with certain
ones of us able to give teachings just now needed
by the world. Intelligent effort is perhaps being
made to explain the means of communication,

162 The Open Vision

notably the pictographic process, the rhythmic
speech or telepathy, and the difficulties encoun-
tered in the use of language. The result would
be, not intellectual havoc, but spiritual enlighten-
ment.

It has been said that if spirits were allowed
to communicate with and aid us at will, their
influential work would be the equivalent of a
miracle and would deprive us of our freedom.
We know very well that many have yielded them-
selves in unguarded receptivity, hence we em-
phatically object to any psychical experience
which weakens individuality. But it is interest-
ing to note that some who have received apparent
communications have been warned against de-
terrent forces, and encouraged to preserve their
freedom and, rationality. Furthermore, direct
impressions show us that there is a type of help-
fulness which is on as high a plane of intelligence
as any service shown us by wise men and women
on earth.

It has been said that spirits communicating
with men draw upon the external memory, and
that in the far past some men have been so far
possessed that they seem to be the obsessing per-
sonality. The notion of rebirth in successive
bodies on earth is said to have arisen from obses-
sions when the possessed personality seemed to
be the communicating spirit, seemed to have lived

Difficulties and Objections 163

before on earth. The idea of reincarnation, then,
is a delusion due to ignorance of the fact that
through the external memory one may take on
the memories of the departed spirit. If this be
a plausible hypothesis, we have real light at last
on this doctrine accepted uncritically by millions
of people on earth. This alternative is surely
profoundly suggestive. Some of us may have
been unaware heretofore that we had external
memories. We may well be on our guard to
keep people from any experience resembling
possession.1

But the usual warning is that there are evil
spirits round about us who try by subtle per-
suasions to influence us. The merest experiment
with the ouija-board suffices to convince some
people that there is truth in this warning, for
there appear to be elusive forces giving such
names as "Mary" or "Amelia," alleged "spooks"
who intervene, impersonate departed friends,
read names from peoples' minds, and otherwise
mislead. Hence the majority of us would prefer
to have nothing whatever to do with the phe-
nomena. There are surely psychological mat-
ters not yet explained. It would be well how-
ever to use such a term as "deterrent forces" in-
stead of "evil spirits." What we need is intelli-

i See, also, Professor Hyslop's objections ty> reincarnation, on
psychological and ethical grounds, "Contact with the Other
World," Chap. XXIII.

164 The Open Vision

"-"""■■■"-— "-——" ——■_-■ — -— — — — — . — ________ _ _____ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ ___________ ____ _______________ — *

gence to think these matters through to the end,
and clear up all the psychical illusions.

It has been said also that spirits with men have
so filled them with their presence that the re-
cipients appeared to experience the Holy Spirit.
Thus men have made all sorts of claims for them-
selves as immediate recipients of heavenly wis-
dom. This is said to be the real explanation of
mystical enthusiasm with all its excesses. If so,
we have all the more reason for acquiring first
principles as means of testing mysticism in all
its forms. We must learn to discriminate be-
tween God and man, learn what elements of
mystic experience are contributed from the hu-
man self, with its beliefs, emotions, enthusi-
asms, and tendencies to excess. In their own
selfhood, quite apart from communion with
spirits, people indulge in this world-old con-
fusion between God and man. It is not surpris-
ing that it should enter into psychical matters
also.

If there are spirits with man of the same
character as the prevalent state of the man him-
self, so that covetousness for example, invites
spirits who are covetous; then let man come to
consciousness of his ruling love, let him purify
and elevate the spirit. The problem would be
the same, even if one were to conclude that there
are indeed earth-bound spirits around us await-

Difficulties and Objections 165

mmammmmmmmmmmmmm — — — i ■■» i ■——■■■■—■—■■■■.■ ■.■—■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■■■■■ m i n ■«— i — — — — — —

ing opportunities to reinforce our ignoble mo-
tives. If these spirits haunt us, let us remember
that there are angels too, silent ones who may
help direct our higher affections without in any
way intruding upon us.

After all, the situation is much like that which
faces us in the world. A gambling den has no
attraction for us because we do not drink and
gamble. Other things are indeed close to us and
we must be on our guard. If we would avoid
temptation, we know that we must first cleanse
the inside of the cup. The possibility of unseen
influences likely to affect us merely adds one
more to a long list of environing influences, such
as the crowd-spirit, mental atmospheres, the
dominating effect of personality. We are all
subject to negative and positive forces. There
is every reason why we should become aware
of our true status with reference to these matters.
We need to know that we are held in equilibrium
and why this is so in the divine providence.
Hence it is not primarily a question of influences
but of the presence of God with us for our guid-
ance. Some people seem to have been so led that
they have scarcely known anything about evil
spirits, or whether they exist. With them it has
been a matter of direct leadings. Hence they
assure us that if an experience is ever produced
from the spiritual world the initiative must be

166 The Open Vision

taken from that source according to the divine
order.

Even if we believe that guiding spirits are
with us, there is no reason for accepting them as
speaking with authority. An experience has no
necessary value because it is referred to the
spiritual world as its source. If guidances which
prove true are given us, each may be estimated
for its own worth amidst all else that life holds
for us : there is no reason for becoming dependent
on guidances attributed to spirits. At best such
leadings are of one type only. We are concerned
with guidance as a whole in relationship with the
divine wisdom. It would be well to look always
to the highest source and not judge by the in-
strumentality.

The objection to making an effort to recall
a spirit by the aid of mediums is well put by Dr.
Holcombe, in a letter to a widow seeking con-
solation through spiritism. "There is one grand
and perfectly conclusive reason why your hus-
band cannot communicate with you, and why
you should not even wish him to do so. After
death the spirit undergoes various changes of
state in the world of spirits, before it can be pre-
pared for consociation with angels and entrance
into heaven. These changes are made in part
by putting off forms of external thought and af-
fection which bind it to the natural world with

Difficulties and Objections 167

its limitations of time and space. Anything
which would bring it back into those old earth-
states of feeling and idea, would arrest its spirit-
ual progress, draw it backward to earth, and
violate the laws of spiritual evolution, which are
so beneficent in their operation for the associated
happiness of each and all, and for the final and
perfect union of affiliated souls. The spirit-
ualists seem to know nothing of the great organic
processes by which the spirit thus puts off the
natural sphere and becomes adapted to spiritual
spheres — a fact which alone would make us re-
gard their communications with suspicion and
distrust, as coming from very immature, earthly,
and external spirits.

"The spiritualists also ignore one of the funda-
mental truths of Swedenborg's system, viz., that
the spiritual and natural worlds are discretely
separated from each other — that each has its
specific forms and forces and its special life re-
sulting from them. The other life is far more
perfect than this in all its forms of public, social,
and private uses. But these things cannot be
communicated by the mere guidance and instruc-
tion of spirits. They grow out of ourselves after
death, according to what our life has been in
this world, by a process of evolution. That life
is the fruit, of which our earth-states are the
leaves and flowers. The two lives cannot and

168 The Open Vision

ought not to be mingled upon the same plane
. . . Our natural life must be governed by sci-
ence, reason, and the wisdom of the Word of
God, and not by advice and control from invisible
sources, either good or bad. Nothing could be
more disastrous to his spiritual welfare, and to
your own welfare both spiritual and natural, than
for your husband to appear regularly to you and
give advice and direction in all your worldly
affairs." 1

This looks disheartening at first and seems to
put our loved ones far from us. If however we
say that the worldly interests which tended to
keep a husband and wife apart in their special
occupations gradually fall away from the one
who is gone, that he is elevated above his old
habits, customs, tastes, and peculiarities belong-
ing to his life on earth, it follows that these no
longer stand between, hence that the two may
draw ever more close in spirit, despite the fact
that there are few verbal communications. The
ties which truly unite will then grow more strong.
There will be more in common, not less. " These
are the sacred interior bonds which unite the
angels of heaven."

Hence Dr. Holcombe continues, "How are
you to attain this spiritual oneness with your
husband? Not by thinking continually of his

i "Letters on Spiritual Subjects," p. 234.

Difficulties and Objections 169

dead form, and brooding over the solitudes of
the grave. He is not there; he is risen in a
spiritual body; and you will never find him, or
come within the sphere of his ascended soul,
among the habitations- of the past. Not by cling-
ing to him as he was in the past, and preserving
his thoughts, opinions, prejudices, affections, etc.,
as sacred things which you must cherish for his
sake. . .' . You will probably not find him in
his past life any more than you will find him in
the grave."

We conclude therefore that it is never pri-
marily a question of the objections and difficul-
ties but of the positive wisdom we can gain on the
life after death. The spiritual ideal is so much
more worth while that there is no reason to linger.
We need to guard both against the grief, the per-
sonal feelings and secondary experiences which
might hold us back ; and the teachings concerning
the spiritual world of those who know only a little
about the "planes" and "auras" and other psychi-
cal matters about which they talk so confidently.
There is direct spiritual teaching for each one
of us if we want it. "The pure in heart shall
see God," that is the primary consideration. It
is the open vision of heavenly wisdom that sets
the standard. "Nothing produces spiritual pres-
ence but through affinity and similarity of affec-
tion and thought." Unworthy motives, pre-

170 The Open Vision

sumption, idle curiosity, breed their like. Falla-
cies, delusions, mischief, pretended revelations,
spring from low motives. There are signs of
the coming of power from on high that are un-
mistakable: states of humiliation, the purifying
of the tastes and inclinations, abstention from
evils, the loving of the neighbor better than one-
self. The differences are discoverable all along
the way, in the motives which actuate us secretly
or otherwise, in our thoughts, our conduct, in all
external affairs. There are signs too of regen-
eration: self -disclosures, temptations, wrestlings
and self-renunciations. At any given time we are
somewhere on the road toward spiritual judg-
ment and rebirth. What avails is knowledge of
the point we have attained, that we may make
intelligent choice and press on. There is guid-
ance for us at each juncture on the pathway of
the soul. The same is true of a given age like
our own, with the newer evidences that communi-
cation between the two worlds has become more
open, hence that there are fewer objections to the
idea of spiritual communion.

XII

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Inasmuch as personal experience is more in-
teresting and instructive to most of us than
volumes of argument and theory, I shall with-
out apology tell how I was led into the realities
of psychical experience by following clues which
life itself disclosed. It is to be hoped that more
people will give heed to the leadings of experi-
ence in this unpretentious way. There should be
no more objection to the description of experi-
ences and what they appear to imply than to an
account of an experiment in a laboratory. The
inner life is the laboratory of the soul. What is
observed there should be at least as significant
for human beings as any discovery one might
make in chemistrv. In a scientific laboratorv
we learn to make allowances for deflecting in-
fluences, and later we submit our results to
searching criticism. In the inner world we
should be able to make equivalent allowances
and arrive at results no less sure.

Born and reared in a household where the
teachings of P. P. Quimby began to prevail be-
fore my birth, I grew up without the traditional

171

172 The Open Vision

teachings concerning salvation and the exclusive
privileges of the Church. I was not taught to
read any views into the Bible, but was permitted
to read it in my own way when I became inter-
ested to do so. Mr. Quimby's view of the spirit-
ual world as near at hand and that death is in-
cidental, prevailed in the household, although the
subject was not often mentioned. The experi-
ences and beliefs I grew into were those which
any one might enjoy who is equally free to follow
where he is led. If this statement is correct in
the main, the chief difficulty is that we give no
thought to intuition or the promptings of per-
sonal experience. It should be said in my case,
however, that with a keenly sensitive tempera-
ment and an early tendency to introspection, I
turned rather more naturally than some to the
examination of inner states. If this seems like
an advantage, it should also be said that one
tends in a measure to become self-sufficient.
One must guard more resolutely against the im-
agination and any phase of consciousness likely
to lead to mystical self-centeredness.

The first intimation I had as a boy that one
possesses other senses than those obviously physi-
cal, came through spontaneous impressions re-
garding things mislaid or lost. One of these im-
pressions was more distinct than earlier ones. I
had been almost indifferent when a member of

Personal Experiences 173

the household lost a diamond out of a ring, while
every one in the household save myself had tried
to find it. Then after two days I started up with
a spontaneous inclination to find the diamond,
and went immediately to the place where it lay
concealed. This experience led me to believe that
I might put my mind into a state to receive im-
pressions, and I found that often-times by a
process of elimination it was possible to discover
"a live clue" and to follow it successfully. Thus
began the life-long habit of turning to the inner
world for impressions before seeking informa-
tion by asking questions or by external observa-
tion. I found that with some measure of suc-
cess I could gain impressions at cross-roads or
obscure points in a path, concerning the right
road to my destination; and that in a strange
town it was possible to get leadings by sending
out my thought in various directions to deter-
mine the one to follow. This endeavor was fos-
tered by visualizing the face of the person whom
I was expecting to see or by calling up the men-
tality or sphere. Once in New York City I
started out apparently at random with the hope
that I might meet a friend who was surely in
the city, although I had not the least clue to his
whereabouts. Threading my way along a main
thoroughfare for a while, I followed an impres-
sion to turn down an intersecting street and in

174 The Open Vision

a few minutes I met my friend walking towards
me. My friend did not know I was in town
and was not looking for me. He was well ac-
quainted with the inner life, and I knew him as
an "inner friend." This interior relationship
apparently accounted for the fact of the impres-
sion to turn toward him. On several other oc-
casions impressions consciously sought came in
the same way.

There also came spontaneously a sufficient
number of experiences in thought-exchange to
show that a spontaneous experience is ordinarily
better than an experiment under prearranged
conditions. Once however, by appointment with
a member of the family while two hundred miles
away, I received the exact words of a complete
sentence amid conditions which would have satis-
fied any scientific demand. Noting the sentence
and that afterwards I could catch no words but
only a blurred feeling, I communicated with the
sender; and learned by a letter which crossed
mine that after transmitting this sentence the
sender hesitated what to say next, and so con-
veyed no distinct thought. When a thought
came spontaneously from another's mind, in con-
trast with an experiment, I found that I need
not be troubled lest my own mind had projected
it ; and if there were any doubt I could make note
of day and hour, and ascertain the facts at the

Personal Experiences 175

sender's end. When another person received a
thought corresponding to mine, I also had evi-
dence that there was actual transference of men-
tal activity or vibration. It was natural to con-
clude that telepathy would take care of itself
and might be noted for any value it should prove
to possess.

Once, I apparently heard my name called, al-
though a member of the family who was present
heard no sound. Going to another part of the
house to find the person who had supposably
called me by word of mouth. I learned that the
other had been thinking of me and was about to
call when she remembered that I was occupied
with important matters, and so she did not call.
I had not only received her thought but distinctly
heard my name. Plainly, the supposed sound
was an auditory illusion. But the experience
showed that one need not be disconcerted by such
an illusion, since it might be associated with a
real inner experience. In this case the signifi-
cant fact would be the inner experience. Thus
in the case of a younger member of the family
out at play there was an actual thought but no
sound, howbeit the illusion was perfect. This
time the mother was really trying to call the boy
mentally. The boy received the thought with
such vividness that he exclaimed to his play-
mate, "Did you hear my mother call?" The

176 The Open Vision

other boy heard nothing, but so strong was the
auditory illusion that the recipient went home in
response to the call which seemed to him the ac-
tual sound of his mother's voice.

On another occasion M r was several miles

from home, and eagerly wishing that she might
return, I unintentionally called her. Although
perceiving no words and having no impression

regarding my need, M felt the outreaching

so strongly that she came home to ascertain "the
trouble/' as she said. From this experience I
learned not to disturb a person unless the need
were urgent. Plainly, this precious power of
communication at a distance should be reserved
for special occasions.

The following instances I will quote from an
account contributed anonymously to a magazine
after the incidents occurred. "Again, on Sep-
tember 3d, 1890, I boarded a steamer at Liver-
pool bound for New York, incidentally noting
that it was exactly 2 p. m., and quite naturally
directed my thought toward my friends at home
but without any attempt to communicate defin-
itely. No one at home knew at what day, or
hour, or by what steamer I was to sail, as the
letter announcing my departure was still in mid-
ocean. . . . On the above day, M suddenly

said to another member of the family: *W

has just boarded the steamer at Liverpool.' The

Personal Experiences 177

experience was so marked that M took care-
ful note of day and hour. In a few days the
letter came announcing the time of my departure
which, allowing for the difference of time, cor-
responded exactly with that given above.

"At another time I had made an appointment
to call at an artist's studio at 3 p. m. to see a cer-
tain picture. At 10.30 a. m. on the same day I
had a strong impression to go at once to the
studio; concluding to obey it, I arrived there at
eleven o'clock. I was received as if I came by
appointment, and learned that the artist had
sent a note at 10.30 asking me to come at 11
instead of 3 p. m. When I came at the hour of
this second appointment he took it for granted
that I had received his note and greeted me ac-
cordingly. But I had left the house several
hours before, and at the time he wrote the note
I was out walking. As nearly as we could de-
termine I had received his thought at the precise
moment when he sat down to write the note an-
nouncing the change of appointment."

The communication at the time of my depart-
ure from Liverpool was instructive because it
showed that on a comparatively slight clue by
means of telepathy the recipient might, if clair-
voyant, actually see the distant person and tell
what he was doing, and give the full reason for
the spontaneous communication. But a spon-

178 The Open Vision

taneous experience does not necessarily surpass
one that is consciously sought, as I learned once
when in the case of serious illness I actively tried

to communicate with M , at a distance of

more than three thousand miles, to inform her

that I was in distress. M was awakened

from deep sleep during the night, recognized the
call and responded to it with the sure conviction
of one who is perfectly at home in the inner
world. I am wholly unable to agree with those
who maintain that thought-transference is best
established when the persons in question are not
well acquainted and when there is nothing per-
sonal in the communication ; for it is precisely the
opportunity which inner affinity and special
needs afford that gives the best evidence, with the
rich and deeply suggestive values which such an
experience implies.

The intimate relationship of minds at a dis-
tance having been established, I also received
spontaneous evidences that guidances may come
in time of need. Once when in imminent danger
from an oncoming train in a railway "yard" into
which I had wandered with the recklessness of
youth, and when I was momentarily confused
by a train approaching around a curve, I received
a sudden impression to stop. Accordingly, I
obeyed and the passing train went by leaving me
in safety. During the same year I ran an even

Personal Experiences 179

greater risk, for I was walking toward a railroad
track where an embankment at my left concealed
a train backing down without warning: that was
before the days of safety signals. When, un-
mindful of the danger, I was on the point of tak-
ing the fateful step that would have brought me
to the track, there came a most distinct warning
to stop. I obeyed the impression, and was then
brought to a realization both of the very great
risk I had taken and of the protecting care which
surrounded me even when I was careless.
Plainly, I ought to be more cautious. But how
comforting the thought that one could be warned
in a moment of need! It was natural to con-
clude that these experiences were given for my
instruction concerning inner guidance.

If we have had premonitions of this sort we are
at least sympathetic towards people who have
had similar experiences. Thus one is prepared
to believe the instance is true concerning the
locomotive engineer on an express train at night
who received an inner warning to stop his train,
and who was so strongly impressed to obey the
premonition that he yielded despite the apparent
absurdity of doing so. Stopping the train and
walking ahead to see what might have happened,
he came to an open draw-bridge only a short dis-
tance ahead. His premonition was plainly a
real psychical experience.

180 The Open Vision

Some would at once infer that guardian angels
sound these warnings in the inner ear. But if
so there appears to be no consciousness on our
part of their presence. The experience is usually
a simple impression, like "a feeling in the bones,"
and is susceptible of varied interpretations.
The best result that comes to us is belief in the
divine protecting wisdom which includes all our
needs and is made known to us through various
channels.

This belief in the divine protection was further
strengthened by an experience in which I was in
very grave danger from an influential person
whose power over me I did not understand. At
the moment of gravest danger I felt a superior
presence apparently coming between my tempter
and me. I seemed to see the face and form in
part. The experience was as distinct and vivid
as if I had been stopped when my own power
was not sufficient to resist the pernicious in-
fluence. It was an impressive surprise to have
this objectifying vision, for I am not ordinarily
clairvoyant and do not see forms or faces.
Quimby's teaching led me to turn away from
spiritism, and to explain all experiences on the
simple basis of intuition or impression. Yet here
was an experience which stood out by contrast,
and which I here describe for whatever it may be
worth. It was doubly impressive in view of the

Personal Experiences 181

f aet that an intuitive friend, a few miles distant,
realizing that I was in danger, came to search
for me in response to an impression. In this
two-fold guidance I saw evidence of a protection
so sure that it became the basis of a faith which
has many times been confirmed since then.

On another occasion during the same year I
apparently saw the same face when there was
special reason for guidance. Rarely in the
course of many years of observation has any simi-
lar experience occurred, and never in connection
with any words or messages, or in response to any
effort on my part. These experiences were the
more interesting in view of the fact that the
teaching in which I had grown up led me to look
for intuitions or impressions only, and to explain
all guidances on the basis of the operation of my
own nature.

Such a vision might of course be a mere pro-
jection of one's own mind. But it comes with
the force and imagery of an objective guidance
almost as real as the physical presence of a
person. It stands out in contrast with experi-
ences which have no such visual accompaniments,
and because of its quality and the conviction that
it is real. Even if one should conclude that the
vision was purely subjective, the inner experience
would remain in memory as a spiritual fact to
be accounted for. It might be argued that such

182 The Open Vision

1

an experience is the more credible when it comes
to one who by training is sceptical about any ex-
perience of a visionary nature. There is at any
rate no reason why we should not report that
life has yielded a guidance of this profoundly
convincing sort.

Having found from early experiences that one
can sometimes discern the sphere or atmosphere
of people, I grew naturally into an explanation
of the impressions one feels when writing letters
to individuals of various types. I found myself
inclined to write in diverse ways to different peo-
ple, according to the type and the knowledge of
language, unless I made an effort to overcome
this inclination. Once when writing to a stranger
I was strongly tempted, much to my surprise, to
dissemble. Throwing aside the influence, I
wrote what I had to say and thought no more of
the matter until a letter came from this stranger
which impressed me as insincere. Later, I
learned through a mutual acquaintance that this
man was indeed a dissembler, and I saw that he
had as far as possible concealed his real thought
from me. I have found by long experience that
impressions are less likely to come when writing
to men of affairs on business matters, since there
is no personal or inner relationship to establish
the psychical connection.

Naturally enough, one whose sensitivity

Personal Experiences 183

grows through observation and use has his prob-
lems to meet such that it becomes difficult to push
on to sure knowledge of reality. He is likely to
become so sensitive to atmospheres that he must
learn to close the door and seek to become more
positive. The problem was to keep sufficiently
open that one might be of service to others
in the discernment of inner states, and yet
to avoid mere mixing of atmospheres and
unguarded receptivity. It simplified matters
when one reasoned that in the case of undesirable
influences there was a point of contact within
the self, hence that one was solely concerned
with oneself, not with possible influences from
spirits. It was then a question of correcting
one's own nature, not of reforming the world.
It was plain that by persistent cultivation
of the intellectual life one could offset and
eventually outgrow undesirable sensitivity, and
that experiences which disclose inner relation-
ships are given for a purpose.

Hence there grew up the habit of testing all
significant matters in the light of keen intellectual
scrutiny, while one continued as usual to believe
in inner guidance. Just as I early learned to
wait at the cross roads when travelling through
a strange country, so I submitted all plans to
the inward test. Always when about to board
a train, for example, I paused to become recep-

184* The Open Vision

tive for a few moments, that any premonition of
danger might come to consciousness, or that I
might be open to any desirable change of plan.
I came to believe that a first general impression
would apply to an entire journey, such as a
voyage to Europe, and that impressions from
point to point along the way would enable one
faithfully to carry out the initial guidance to the
end.

Thus one grew into the expectation that if in
any undertaking one encountered no check or
impeding impression he must be moving in the
right direction. If on the wrong road one would
expect to receive negative impressions from the
first. Yet he might sometimes receive unfavor-
able impressions with a conviction that these refer
to difficulties to be overcome, hence one should
press on. Thus in a war-zone one might have
impeding impressions without number, yet above
them all a leading to push through to victory.

Only once in the course of many years did a
negative impression come regarding a railway
journey. When about to board a train the
words came to me unexpectedly, " There is going
to be an accident, but you will be all right." I
therefore started on my journey in confidence.
The negative impression was confirmed by a
minor accident two hours later. On another
journey I had one adverse impression after an-

Personal Experiences 185

other, but without words and mingled with a feel-
ing that it was right to continue. The sequel
showed that I was not to carry out the project
on which I had set out, hence the unfavorable
impressions; but there were other ends to be at-
tained which I had not foreseen. Inasmuch as I
received no premonition of dangers along the
way, it was right to persist despite the adverse
impressions.

Another phase of these inner experiences be-
gan to come into view in connection with a plan
to move to another house in the same city.
During the two weeks in which members of the
family were house-hunting and consulting adver-
tisements, I felt as indifferent as in the case of
the lost diamond referred to above. Then
suddenly one evening I announced that I would
find the house we were to live in. Going rather
directly to a vacant house not half a mile away,
I distinctly saw the family living and carrying
on a certain kind of work there. Returning
home, I informed my parents that I had found
our new home. After some delay and further
exploration, this house was decided upon and the
work I foresaw was carried on there. From this
experience I learned to wait until the impression
came before seeking a dwelling-place. On two
other occasions separated by intervals of years I
was led to our next home in the same way, and

186 The Open Vision

in each instance on the day when the impression
came. In neither case did I make any effort to
find the house that was "for us" by any conscious
activity on my own part. In still another in-
stance of house-hunting the place to which we
moved was found by another member of the
family, but I knew it was the right one because
on entering it for the first time I saw the family
living there.

Deterring impressions, I early learned, are
often as significant as those that are positive.
In one instance I embarked on a certain enter-
prise because a good adviser insisted that I
should. But everything went at cross purposes,
and I gave up the venture because it brought no
inner response to the effect that it was right. I
learned from instructive experience not to disre-
gard a negative impression. For once I per-
sisted in mailing a letter despite the fact that
when about to post it I felt a warning to the
effect that it would breed trouble. The trouble
came indeed and I lost a whole year in point of
time by my refusal to stop when checked. At
another time when about to post a letter I heard
the words, "Do not sell your soul." I posted
the letter nevertheless, for the import of the
warning was that I should proceed, although with
thought fulness.

Much then depends on one's interpretation

Personal Experiences 187

and on one's will. Guidances do not deprive us
of our freedom although they may come with
great persuasiveness. One may disregard them
and take the consequences, thus learning from
experience how to know guidance from personal
inclination. Judging by the experience alone,
there is often no reason for inferring from the
impression that an angel guide was the mediat-
ing presence through which the guidance came.
Not even when words arise into mind, has one
positive evidence that a guardian angel was
present; for our own minds sometimes bring
thoughts to us in the form of words heard with
the inner ear as if spoken, or our minds con-
tribute the words in which a guidance takes form.
It may be wiser that we should not know that a
guardian is with us. For the primary consider-
ation is always the divine basis of guidance, what-
ever the means it assumes. Moreover, one seeks
to avoid taking oneself and one's experiences too
seriously. One's experiences are merely so many
signs and so many tendencies in the laboratory
of the soul. There is no reason for haste in
arriving at conclusions. There are tests and
teachings outside of one's nature to which per-
sonal experiences may be submitted. Subjec-
tive experience alone is not and never can be the
decisive test. Nevertheless, inner experience if
followed as a gift, not as a process which one

188 The Open Vision

seeks to control, may lead the way to an alto-
gether convincing theory of inner guidance and
divine providence. So too spontaneous experi-
ences may point the way to the adoption of a
method of seeking guidance which will yield
better and better results as the years come and
go.

XIII

DIRECT IMPRESSIONS

There is a distinct advantage in following the
developments of inner experience without in-
dulging in experiments to test the idea of the
survival of personal identity or spirit-return
On learns to keep an inner door open for guid-
ances that may be vouchsafed for a purpose, yet
one makes no personal effort to attract experi-
ences of a psychical nature. One has a method
of awaiting impressions, submitting everything
consequential to inner guidance ; and one believes
profoundly in inner responses as a test of reality
and truth. But there is no outreaching, no
eagerness, hence no tendency to create an ex-
perience out of hand. One believes that if there
be any experience to be given for good reasons
from a higher source it will come, if not in one
way then in another. This belief gives the in-
centive, prepares the way without interference.
The result is that by experience itself one learns
to know the difference between an intuition aris-
ing within the mind as ideas come and go, and
a direct impression due to activities outside the
self. The direct impression coming thus spon-
taneously, brings its own evidence with it.

189

190 The Open Vision

Naturally we differ in type and experience in
these matters. It might be wise for some of us
to ask for evidences of the continued presence
around us of friends who have gone across the
threshold, although this seems contrary to order.
But for some of us it plainly would not be wise
despite the fact that we have grown up with the
conviction that the spiritual world is near. In
my own case a premonition of the passing of a
loved one came, as I believe, to prepare me to
meet the experience, that there should be no
sense of separation, no break in the continuity
or inner relationship. Hence to my surprise I

felt no impulse to keep A with us. With

him the transition was apparently of the gentlest,
most natural kind, without serious interruption
in consciousness. For me it was the closing of
one chapter and the opening of another, in which
experience itself was still to lead the way. It
would have been unwise to invite communion
with him. Indeed it was necessary for some
time to refrain from rather than to welcome this
communion. Hence when it came it brought
convincing evidence of its reality, and led me to
believe that experience by direct impression is
the surest proof that death is no real separa-
tion.

There was no effort whatever on my part to
reach out to find A . My belief in the life

Direct Impressions 191

after death was such that I should have had no

reason for this outreaching. I thought of A

as alive and near by, going on in his develop-
ment under freer conditions, but in no way sepa-
rated from us in spirit. While he was still with
us in the flesh I had communicated with him
mentally at a distance, and I had no reason for
thinking that this interchange would be broken.
Nor had I any reason to guard against subtle
attempts to conjure up A's presence, since there
was no notion on my part that his spirit was re-
moved from us. My belief simply was this:
that if it were right communion with him would
be vouchsafed according to the higher law.

It is difficult to tell what followed so as to
share with others what may be shared and yet
make the statement as convincing as it might
be if one could tell all. At first I simply felt

the presence of A as usual, as if he had not

gone at all, without awareness of guidance and
without receiving any words. Then when I re-
ceived a few words they came as naturally as any
thought detected through telepathy with a person
in the flesh. I felt the presence coming towards
me, knew the direction from whence it came and
whither it went, although I saw neither form nor
face. Rendering myself receptive without eager-
ness, in the manner which I had found from ex-
perience to be desirable, I distinctly perceived a

192 The Open Vision

very brief message of a personal nature for some
one in the family. It was a word of advice
which conflicted with what the other person be-
lieved was right, but which proved its value in
contrast with an attempt to disregard it. One
could hardly imagine more satisfactory evidence
of the reality of a communication.

On several other occasions I received a warn-
ing impression and made myself as receptive as
possible, although the result was never so distinct
as in the first instance. Then after the lapse of
months I realized that my mind tended to gener-
ate and objectify a message before I could be-
come genuinely receptive, and a doubt inter-
vened. This seemed unfortunate, for appar-
ently the doubt closed the door upon a very real
experience. But this doubt passed and I once
more found it possible to receive a word or two
which I believed came from beyond my own
mind. And it was shown me by conclusive ex-
perience that receptivity on our part is not al-
ways essential.

One day, while absorbed in the study of
Spencer's "First Principles," in my room at

college, I felt the presence of A as before.

Coming as it did amidst intellectual concentra-
tion, I was convinced that the presence could
overcome mental and other obstacles. A few
days later, I distinctly felt the presence again,

Direct Impressions 193

when engaged in a very different occupation.
Later still, I learned to recognize the presence in
connection with my work, when no message was
given, when there was no reason for special
guidance ; but when I felt a spirit of helpfulness
that came as one might hold a brighter light over
another and aid him to see his own way. This
kind of helpfulness, I have come to believe, is the
best sort in the world. One is entirely free to
act contrairiwise, and thus one may come to
learn by experience the superior value of wisdom
offered us which we are at first disinclined to ac-
cept.

After a time I ceased to feel the presence of

A , and very naturally as it seemed to me,

inasmuch as an enlightened individual would
probably go on to higher spheres of activity and
would not return except in cases of special need.
This did not mean a sense of separateness, and
why should we ever think of ourselves as cut off
from our loved ones? It simply meant that one
had one's own life to live amid conditions close
at hand, while the other had found superior con-
ditions.

Then after the passage of years there came the
first message I was able to associate with another
personality, under circumstances which made the
communication doubly persuasive. I had never
seen this man J in the flesh, although I had

194 The Open Vision

corresponded with him before his death and was
well acquainted with people who knew him. I
also knew that he was working to free souls. A
few weeks after his death, he apparently made
his presence known to a group of friends through
automatic writing. Some of these messages
were shared with me, and one was addressed to
me ; but I was not impressed, because I had come
to believe that any communication destined for
me would either come through direct experience
or would be confirmed by inner impression, and
no such evidence was forthcoming. I had no

reason to expect a message from J , and I

was not acquainted with his psychical quality.
Surprising indeed then was an experience that
came when I was conversing with a friend in
great distress and in the midst of which I per-
ceived a presence decidedly unlike that of A ,

whom I knew so well.

One might ask what reason I had for accepting
this presence as real. I answer by its quality

and by the fact that J gave me his name,

and that he came in a time of need to perform the
same service he had done for people while in the
flesh, namely, to help them overcome adverse
conditions when the struggle was very great.
There seemed no reason for doubt, and his help
was most welcome, despite the fact that my gen-
eral belief led me neither to desire nor to look for

Direct Impressions 195

any help or guidance save through endeavor to
live by divine wisdom. No message came ex-
cept the name by which this man was known.
The rest was matter of feeling or presence. I
was not attached to him personally. He held
beliefs which I did not in any way share. Yet
there was a common bond for the time being in
the effort to free people in distress.

A few months later, J came again, advis-
ing me, but without words, not to take an im-
portant step which I forthwith proceeded to take
because I had little faith in his advice, although
I regretted my decision. Once afterwards,

J again sought to be influential. He came

when I was absorbed in conversation with a
friend, discussing a plan of action. Quick as a
flash the message came into my mind amidst my
own thoughts but unlike them in quality: "Don't

do it, J ." This message was particularly

interesting because wholly unlooked for, because
it came without any warning impression to be
still and make myself receptive, and because I
was neither receptive nor still but intensely ac-
tive. The experience tended to strengthen the
growing conviction that any message or guidance
that was intended for me would reach me in any
event, under any circumstances whatever. Then
this spirit passed apparently into another sphere
and has never come again, so far as I know.

196 The Open Vision

The next advance brought to me the presence

of a more enlightened spirit than either A

or J , although accompanied by one of the

type of A , that I might know the import of

the presence. No words came this time. No
cool wave upon the face preceded the experi-
ence. I saw the form and perceived the light
dimly, and intuitively received the clue or in-
timation of the meaning I was to derive from
the experience* The wisdom thus given me was
unmistakable, for it pertained to a change of
work which I did not then understand, and it was
several months before its full import began to
dawn upon me. I distinguished this experience
from a vision which came at the age of eighteen
and which disclosed to me the nature of my work,
because the first vision was a symbolical repre-
sentation of ideas given me by way of instruction
without any evidence that a spiritual presence
was giving it to me ; while the second was a vision
of one who said nothing but whose presence was
there to lead to a long train of thoughts. For
all I know every vision of a mystical or semi-mys-
tical nature may be induced in our spirits by an
angel. But being by nature and training ex-
tremely cautious about believing without direct
inner evidence, I can only say that but once in
a life-time has a vision of this sort come when I
felt and saw the angelic presence. I must dis-

Direct Impressions 197

tinguish such an experience from an ordinary
spiritual "uplift," from "cosmic consciousness"
or mystic ecstasy, because of its quality. It was
sufficiently moderate to enable me to apprehend
its spirit without any of the mystic responses or
emotions which have led devotees of mysticism
in all ages to insist that mystic immediacy simply
cannot be described. I hold, from experience,
that such immediacy can be analyzed into its ele-
ments, and that there is a great advantage in the
coming of moderate visions, those that leave us
in great inner clearness so that we may analyze
them. Far less mystical than our superiors in
this region of the inner life, by no means ecstatic,
those of us who are moderate are able to avoid
mysticism from the very beginning. We accord
to the inner experience the privilege of develop-
ing in its own way without intruding our own
emotions. Those of us who have had two or
three calmly moderate visions in the course of a
life-time, and all these emphatically for a pur-
pose, are able to connect them with what we be-
lieve on other grounds in behalf of divine guid-
ance; and thus we are able to escape being
"visionary." 1

By following such leadings one may cultivate
the intellect to the full and become as sceptical as

1 1 have developed this view at length in "The Philosophy of the
Spirit," Chap. XII.

198 The Open Vision

one likes, yet find that the evidence for direct
inner experiences is unmistakable and beyond
all philosophical assault. By following such lead-
ings one may live in the natural world like other
men, eating one's three square meals a day, en-
joying life in the open, in every way "normal."
One concludes that the wisdom vouchsafed from
a higher source is in every way right, not "super-
normal," not implying that one's life is "ab-
normal." For such guidance comes unsought
amidst the usual activities, with which it does not
in any way interfere. One neither seeks visions
nor presences. One awaits the development
of inner experience, however that experience may
come. Thus there grows up a consciousness
of the differing qualities of experience, and one
learns to know these experiences that come for a
purpose in contrast with any voluntary outreach-
ing. If one has not even prayed for anything
of the sort, one has the more reason for belief.
For example, one learns from experience that
sometimes on awakening at four o'clock in the
morning the mind is thrown more readily into
spiritual light. Plainly, there is less resistance
on the part of the physical organism at such a
time. Intellectually speaking the mind is less
active. Finding the mind in a state of partial
illumination, one can bring various matters into
this light and gain insight into them. This state

Direct Impressions 199

does not seem to be induced by an angelic pres-
ence, although it may be so. It may not come
for any special reason, hence it is especially
serviceable. One may seek light on questions at

will, as long as the state continues. A used

to say before he left us that if he could so arrange
his life he would like to wake up at four o'clock
every morning, that he might grow in spiritual
knowledge. For he found that the illuminations
which came at this hour exceeded those of all

ordinary intuitions, and A was very intuitive

in type.

By experience once more, there has grown up
the conviction that in case of extreme need, if
I were obtuse and unyielding during the day,
if all efforts to attract my attention were fruit-
less, the mind could be awakened at four in the
morning with the needed guidance or message.
This is a very comforting belief in this over-
active life of ours when, despite all our good in-
tentions, we lose some of these inner powers for
the time being, as the years pass. I hold this
faith because on a notable occasion when I was
externally absorbed and inwardly unreceptive
when the mind otherwise seemed closed even to

the presence of A , I was awakened three

mornings in succession at four o'clock. The first
two mornings I was still obtuse and unyielding.
The third time my mind was sufficiently open

200 The Open Vision

so that I received the message at last, saw its
wisdom and determined to act upon it at once.
It was one of those crises when if ever in life
one needed to be aroused, warned and emphatic-
ally influenced. No similar experience has ever
come again. But, as in the case of the warning
of danger from an approaching train, mentioned
in the foregoing chapter, there has been no similar
need. This experience reinforced the conviction
that what is for us will come. This being true,
it is not necessary to seek these experiences.
The most satisfactory aspect of them consists in
their ideal possibility, in the fact that they might
come if needed. In the absence of them one as-
sumes that it is better to press on without them.
For, plainly, we are left without distinct guid-
ances when there is need for experience on our
part. When the guidances come, they are for
our best development; they do not deprive us of
our freedom.

That there may be help for us in our work
without the least interference with our freedom,
is well known among writers who have had evi-
dences of assistance in producing books of direct
value to humanity. Such helpfulness may be
said to belong to the level next above automatic
writing. That is to say, no words are dictated,
there is no form of automatism, certainly no
form of coercion or the desire to control. By

Direct Impressions 201

such "helpfulness" one means that a light is cast
through our minds by which we may be more
directly led to express our own ideas. In so far
as our ideas coincide with those of our friends
cooperating with us, the helpfulness may be in-
creased. On occasion we may be more definitely
aided, for example, in eliminating a statement
not in accord with the spirit of the literary pro-
duction as a whole. Yet such aid is in the nature
of a suggestion simply, and one is perfectly free
to disregard it. More writers and speakers may
have been helped in this way than we realize.
Those of us who are the more conscious of this
inward assistance are able, perhaps, to propound
an explanation for the benefit of others, namely,
that there is communication through direct im-
pression.

If we still prefer to believe and to say that such
impressions are simply evidences of the working
of intuition in us, there is no objection to be made.
Those who would avoid spiritism in all its forms
naturally would attribute all higher operations
of their spirit to the immediate influx of divine
wisdom. The difficulty in my own case would be
that while for the most part this idea is simpler
and seems to accord with most of the facts, oc-
casionally an experience has come where the evi-
dence, however analytically examined, has com-
pelled me to believe that a spirit was present

202 The Open Vision

also. Ultimately speaking all efficiency belongs
to the divine wisdom. But that wisdom is medi-
ated to us, and it may well come through the in-
strumentality of those in affinity with us in the
spiritual world.

Again, one might push as far as possible the
hypothesis that the uprushes from below the
threshold of consciousness account for the ideas
to which we find ourselves giving expression, in
cases where we have not consciously developed
precisely those ideas. It is well at times to give
full play to this hypothesis. I have done so.
At other times I have been so absorbed in purely
technical matters that for months I have not had
so much as one experience of the nature of guid-
ance or direct impression, for example, when en-
gaged in the study of a philosophical subject re-
quiring close concentration and the reading of
abstruse works. But as I have looked back over
such periods I have seen that there was no reason
for aid from higher sources in any way, that my
own mind was regularly producing by well es-
tablished methods whatever my pen found to say.
But no sooner have I finished such a piece of
technical work and yielded to spontaneous im-
pressions than inner activities have been re-
sumed, and new evidences have come that the
mind really is open to other sources. One could
endeavor to drive out every vestige of evidence

Direct Impressions 203

of higher things. One possesses intellectual
power enough. But the process would be like
analyzing out of being the last trace of love, the
last of those higher values which for many of us
are the things supremely worth while.

I had an experience one time of great value
in this connection. I was present with one who
lay apparently at the point of death, and natur-
ally enough I wished to remain as calm and
strong as possible, that I might be of real service.
More vividly aware than ever before that any-
thing I might say was insignificant in contrast
with what one might feel if one could truly realize
the divine presence, I experienced an incoming
of rhythms such that I could have written a
hymn. In fact, the first stanza of a new hymn
came into my mind, but I could not then give
attention to literary production. Reflecting on
this experience when at leisure, it seemed that in
apprehending these rhythms one was open to
the universal element underlying all forms of
inner spiritual helpfulness, including the activi-
ties of * 'genius." Granted this interior openness
on the part of individuals of different capacities
and talents, one man would write verse, another
would compose a symphony, another would
paint, one would design, and so on through a
long list. Each would express the rhythms in
his own way, contributing the imagery, the Ian-

j

204 The Open Vision

guage and even the thought. If all were aware
of the underlying element, all could compare
notes on the universal or spiritual speech. The
experience on its human side would in each case
take the form of direct impression. This might
be the universal element in all higher guidance.
It might be the basis of communion with angels
and spirits, save that actual words might be con-
veyed in some instances also. Throwing the in-
termediaries out of account, we would have
spiritual communion in its simplest form. Tak-
ing the different mediating means into account,
we would have a principle on which to explain
all genuine relationships with the spiritual world.
In so far then as one has had evidence of the
reality of direct impressions, one is in a position
to acquire a spiritual standard by which to judge
all psychical experiences. For it is the higher
quality that is evidential, not the psychical ele-
ment. To have this clue in some measure is to
discern at least dimly the heavenly light into
which we may lift all matters for their better
testing. When the spontaneous illuminations
come at four in the morning, we may observe and
follow with the sure consciousness that a higher
power is really active within us. And those who
have not yet put to the test their belief in the
nearness of the spiritual world may know how to
begin.

Direct Impressions 205

Doubt if you will the objective reality of the
foregoing experiences, they were the ones which
one individual followed during his formative
years. In any case you have on your hands for
explanation facts which withstood all sceptical
tests. The outcome was a theory of guidance
which one could live by, a theory that psychical
experience is inner experience and may be fol-
lowed to see whither it leads, quite apart from
external associates and spiritism. Any one is
free to interpret the facts in another way. One
can never rightfully insist upon one's own ex-
perience as authoritative. One may only say
that the experiences yielded a certain spiritual
value, chiefly personal, but similar on the whole
to the values which others find in the inner life
when they push through all refining analyses to
the clear light of conviction. Belief in divine
guidance would remain as the great value, even
if one should come to doubt the reality of all al-
leged presences and messages. The mind is of
such a nature that it can be guided — that is the
great fact. Other matters are secondary and
depend on our type and on our work in the
world. These matters may have transcendent
value for us, indeed we may have had visions
which almost overwhelmed us with their beauty
and truth. But it is the universal element which
may be shared, which each may come to know

206 The Open Vision

and to fest in his own way. If found within the
soul, it can be found elsewhere too. Hence one
is not limited by personal experience and may
regard it as chiefly formative and preliminary
to deeper knowledge of the divine love and
wisdom.

XIV

INNER PERCEPTION

If we conclude that psychical experiences are
known by inner impression, our first need is for
a philosophy of inner impressions which shall do
justice to the spiritual life, with its guidances,
its ideals, its relationships. The starting-point
is with the soul or spirit and its powers, the world
of experience implied in the spiritual life on its
inner side. We may proceed with the develop-
ment of such a philosophy on the basis of inner
impressions, just as we construct a philosophy of
our relationship with nature on the basis of outer
or sense-impressions. We are well aware that
there are rival philosophies of the relationship
of the soul to nature, such as empiricism and ra-
tionalism, idealism and materialism. So too
there are rival interpretations of the soul's re-
lationship to the spiritual world, although our
thought is very immature in this direction. On
the whole, most of us who proceed thoughtfully
are likely to adopt a philosophy akin to empiri-
cism, that is, one in which experience takes the
lead, which shapes itself gradually in our minds
during the passing years. What we most object
to is any doctrine or dogma which undertakes

207

208 The Open Vision

to define in advance what we may know and what
we may expect by way of inner experience. If
we have narrowed our own experiences down to
inner impressions awaiting interpretation, we are
in a position to follow wherever truth shall lead.
We note for one thing that inner impressions,
like sense-impressions acquainting us with sounds
and sights in nature, are neutral. Telepathy,
for example, is obviously neutral. It might take
place between thieves, for all we know. Ap-
parently, self-love could as readily give expres-
sion to mental transfer as disinterested love. It
is not a question of good and evil till we look
more deeply into the inner life. For, we must
distinguish ordinary communications between
mind and mind, which we may compare to vibra-
tion in the world of sound ; and harmonious com-
munication of a spiritual type, which we call
rhythm. We are well acquainted with this dis-
tinction in the case of physical sensations. Dis-
cords, for example, may be as readily transmitted
by sound waves as music or harmony. The at-
mosphere surrounding our earth is neutral and
free. So is ordinary human speech. Hence we
learn to penetrate beneath it to real intentions
and inner sentiments. Our intonations are only
in part rhythmical. Much of the time we talk
prose, often a very harsh prose. The same is
true of our life as a whole. Telepathy should

Inner Perception 209

reveal this fact more deeply and truly than we
have ever understood it. But telepathy may
ascend from level to level in the mental world.
Between spiritually minded people in affinity it
becomes, rhythmical, harmonious, poetic. An
inharmonious vibration would hurt or jar. The
ideal is to overcome all inharmonies within one-
self, that one may send out only "harmonious
waves of rhythm," that one may speak the lan-
guage of heaven.

To the extent that I differentiate between dis-
cord and harmony in my own life, I am likely
to detect the contrast in other people. As I ad-
vance, I of course seek to overcome all smallness
of spirit, all envy, hate, bitterness, sarcasm, ad-
verse criticism and condemnation. These men-
tal states belong on the level of mere vibrations,
are negative, destructive. In their stead, I try
to cultivate largeness of spirit, charity, sym-
pathy, disinterested affection. These states be-
long on the level of rhythm and open the spirit
to spiritual power. The more these states rise
into power in my life the less thought need be
given to discords. These I may pass by as we
would turn from mere noise to musric in the
natural world. What interests us is music, har-
mony, rhythm. What we need is a standard or
ideal by which to attune our spirits to the higher
harmonies.

210 The Open Vision

While then inner impression in itself is merely
immediate or given, and simply awaits interpre-
tation, our consciousness naturally becomes more
and more selective. As we ascend the mental
scale from the psychical into the spiritual, wre
realize that desirable inner impressions belong
with integrity and beauty of character. The
mere fact of having inner impressions counts for
very little. The merest "psychic" or sensitive
might have an impressionability far surpassing
that of a person of culture and refinement. In-
deed a psychic might have clairvoyant power
which would make us almost envious. But there
might be little intelligence, no refinement, and
hence no power to distinguish between discord
and harmony in the inner world. What we want
is not mere clairvoyance but insight and the
ability to bring uplifting influences into daily
life. Hence we distinguish between mere clair-
voyance and seership, between mere impressions
and intuitions. Insight requires intelligence.
Intuition belongs with ideals. It is "the pure
in heart" who shall see God.

Let us say then that inner impressions call for
inner perception, and that by inner perception
we mean a unifying, clarifying or interpretative
power by which we pass beyond mere receptivity
to active use and development. Inner percep-
tion is an activity of the human spirit in its less

Inner Perception 211

dependent guise, that is, more free from the body,
more open to spiritual life, to the divine love and
wisdom. In fact, inner perception unites us with
the divine mind so that we often think and will
and love better than we know, so that we become
open to guidances surpassing self-conscious
thought. In inner perception we transcend our
bothersome self-consciousness and forget our-
selves, that is, attain to higher levels, respond to
purer motives.

By the operation of inner perception in its
purest form, a person would intuitively know
what is right and what is true without being in-
structed. He would at once know what wisdom
is divine, what human; what love is from God,
what is from man. By it man would intuitively
realize that in God he lives, and moves, and has
his being ; not in his mere self. Hence he would
take no credit to himself for power or wisdom.
By it a man would know what is inner and what
is outer in his experience, would intuitively dis-
criminate the spiritual world from the natural.
This perception would disclose the inward light
regarded as heavenly or divine in origin, the
light which yields spontaneous insights, guid-
ances ; that is, it would be the channel in general
of what we call illuminations, inspiration, revela-
tion. It is the power of the open vision, and
such vision is "open" because immediate, direct

212 The Open Vision

or intuitive; in contrast with external observa-
tion, analysis, inference, the forming of hypothe-
ses and arriving at conclusions based on natural
facts and limited by facts. There are "facts"
too for inner perception, but these are clothed in
beauty and illumined by a light which overcomes
ell mere prose and the halting efforts of our
painful self-consciousness.

In the golden age of inner perception man has
no need either of doctrines or books, but possesses
the divine Word in his heart. Later, indeed per-
ception may mean knowledge of the true and the
good based on wisdom previously acquired. But
we think of it in its purity as disclosing by im-
mediate vision "the way, the truth, and the life."
In its best estate it yields the unblemished reality
itself "by an internal way," whereas that use of
spiritual wisdom which leads to the formulation
of doctrine is by an external way, namely,
through the employment of intellectual terms
and figures of speech adapted to the age. In
its best estate man also has constant corrobora-
tion of the truth which has been previously dis-
closed to him, so that he constantly knows spirit-
ual realities and can always turn to them.

By the operation of inner perception man
might have guidance from infancy to manhood
in what is good and true, initiation from within

Inner Perception 213

into all the wisdom and power needed for living
"the fulness of life." Thus if man kept the open
vision in its purity he would need no other source
of instruction, would steadily and actively possess
within himself the realities of faith, the ground
of all true hope, the source of all belief in God,
freedom, and immortality. Man would then be-
lieve in spiritual realities as matter of course, that
is, as a consequence ; instead of arriving at belief
as a conclusion. If presented with a book such
as the Bible he would know what there is in it
of divine goodness and truth through prior pos-
session of the same goodness and truth in im-
mediate form. The goodness and truth would
therefore be self -revealing. There would be no
need to reason from facts alone, since the mind
would possess the principles which explain facts.
The mind thus quickened would believe in God
and speak of God because of intuitive awareness
of the divine presence as a living reality in the
actual present, in contrast with any claim in be-
half of historical revelation. Freedom would be
taught as a possession because of immediate
awareness of it. Belief in immortality would
spring from touch with eternal reality within the
soul. Sight or possession would be the equiva-
lent of "proof" and would be very much more.
Yet no one possessing such sight would deem

214 The Open Vision

i ii ■ 1. 1 j— — — — .— . — ,

himself especially gifted or wise in his own mere
self, since "the understanding heart" would dis-
close to the one eternal source of wisdom.

Such perception would be both immediate and
compelling to the one apprehending its dis-
closures, and communicative in relation to other
men possessing it. From it there would spring
spiritual speech which would be intuitively known
by both speaker and listener, for both would have
the law "written on the heart" which would give
direct evidence of the realities communicated.
Both would be able to live from this interior
revelation, and life in accordance with it would
be heaven on earth, that is, life on earth from
heaven. This social revelation would in a word
disclose the revelation behind all revelations, and
yield the universal reason for the existence of
scriptures, for belief in God, freedom, and im-
mortality, wherever these beliefs are found on
our earth.

We need not presuppose a golden age of any
extent or enlightened men of great number pos-
sessing the open vision. The open vision in the
period which led to the writing of scriptures and
the giving to the world of spiritual teachings in
the far past may have been childlike or primitive
in form. All we need presuppose is sufficient
perception to account for such teachings as we
possess, sufficient to give us the ideal of the open

Inner Perception 215

vision as man's purest response to the divine
mind and heart. For us it is not a question of
the past but of the possibility of awakening out
of our dogmatic slumbers into inner perception
as a reality today. The mere fact that we pos-
sess the ideal is profoundly significant. The
more thoughtfully we consider the ideal the more
reasons we find for holding fast to it, the less we
care for the doctrinal substitutes which have been
imposed upon the world.

What was the next step supposably taken by
man after he had enjoyed the open vision? The
term "inner dictate" has been used to character-
ize the residue in the period when man became
self-conscious, interested in his own powers,
aware of inner conflict, in need of conscience and
of doctrine or moral commandments. That is,
conscience ' "dictates" that there is truth and
righteousness, but leaves man to discover what
is right and what is true. It bids man meditate,
consider, putting higher motives over against
lower. Through it man learns that he must take
responsibility. His better nature rises up in
protest despite the fact that he has become im-
mersed in the world and has yielded to self-love.
Reason ' "dictates," we say, that this or that
is right because the moral law decrees it, "be-
cause the Bible says so," or because society so
decrees. Thus reason tends to be more and more

216 The Open Vision

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external, and man ceases to act from inward
awareness based on experience. Thus too au-
thority becomes more and more external, until
finally it degenerates into the mere word of those
who stand for it in the churches and other in-
stitutions. "Thou shalt not" is now the com-
mandment. Doctrine takes the place of vision.
Priests take the place of seers. The churches
take the place of God. History usurps the place
of the eternal present. No one knows what inner
perception is. It has become a mere question
of doctrines and their interpretation. The au-
thority on spiritual matters is the one skilled in
interpretation. A really enlightened interpreter
would recover the idea of the "inner dictate,"
and following this clue would work his way back
to inner perception. Thus the seer would lead
men back to the sources of spiritual belief and
encourage people to look within, to meditate, to
break free from authority and tradition. The
spiritual history of the race is just such an alter-
nating of periods of doctrine and seership. Thus
in the course of time we come to see the meaning
of history and to acquire a standard, a "sense"
for spiritual truth.

We pass through similar periods of change
or development in many of our interests and voca-
tions. Thus a person possessing "a musical ear"
has a power akin to the open vision, and then

Inner Perception 217

through training acquires a dictate or standard
which enables him to estimate musical composi-
tions according to the acuteness of his aesthetic
intuition. By a "gift" or talent, by "genius" we
always mean something akin to the open vision,
that is, the power or talent in its native purity ;
and we are endlessly discussing the relative values
of genius and training, talent and discipline.
The standards by which most of us judge are
partly native to us, partly acquired, and it is
difficult to tell what is really innate, what is due
to education. Suffice it that sooner or later in
any field where man attains excellence he pos-
sesses or acquires a standard. Thus the literary
artist has an eye and ear for beauty of form in
spoken or written discourse. He may become
so acute as a student of a great writer like
Shakespeare that he can tell in a flash what lines
in Shakespeare's plays have been introduced by
another hand, what ones came from the hand of
the master. Such a literary faculty is not ex-
actly a feeling, an idea, or an experience; it is
rather an implicit standard borne within the
spirit whereby one knows at a glance and knows
surely.

If one has had experience of religious realities
one carries a certain implicit something by which
worship in a given church is tested, faith is dis-
cerned for what it may be worth according to

218 The Open Vision

one's enlightenment, and a value is put upon
charity or service. Moral experience lays down
a certain wealth in us in the same way. We ap-
preciate in others what life has taught through
us in our touch with moral integrity, our con-
tact with people of uprightness, people who have
the courage of their convictions. We naturally
recall what we have seen and felt and heard, and
this sums itself into a whole as a means of testing
what is just, and what is right. We possess as
our own whatever has been taught us at home,
in school or church, or what we have learned from
the Bible, only so far as life thus gives it back
to us as a standard emphasized by experience.
The rest is mere theory.

A musician catching a theme such as that of
Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" and hearing
the whole as it were in an intuition, may be said
to be in a state of mind comparable to that of
inner perception. The symphony orchestra, play-
ing Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony," may also be
said to be in touch with musical reality at first
hand. So are we in a measure when we listen
and seem to rise above mere space and time in
touch with "the world of appreciation," the world
of values or Platonic Ideas. Later, bearing the
memory within our spirits as the years pass, we
have a standard or dictate. People hearing us
tell what we have heard in "the world of wonder-

Inner Perception 219

ful reality" are in a state comparable to that of
listeners in a church hearing the minister tell his
views of what some one in authority has said by
way of interpretation of authorized doctrines ac-
cepted on tradition. We often wonder why a
symphony concert impresses us as so much nearer
perfection than religious services, save perhaps
the music. Here is the reason. Music is still pro-
duced by those who are in touch with first-hand I
sources, while religion is often discussed at third
hand and exemplified in a corresponding remote-/
ness from reality.

If we did not possess vestiges of inner percep-
tion we would not of course be so disappointed
with the churches. We intuitively know far
more than we realize. We scarcely dare even to
think because it is not popular or is not permis-
sible. We might acquire a spiritual standard of
our own, by venturing to believe in inner experi-
ence, and we might recover the vestiges of inner
perception. Then the golden age would be no
mere tradition but an ideal for active pursuit.
We might acquire a philosophy of inner per-
ception, and thereby grow into the ability to in-
terpret this whole field of psychical reality which
has been so long misunderstood.

Man, let us remind ourselves once more, is a
spirit dwelling in the spiritual world, in the in-
teriors of his selfhood. It is normal to know

220 The Open Vision

heavenly reality at first hand. It is normal to
acquire truth and to receive guidance at first
hand. We need build no walls between our-
selves and the eternal world. By implication,
our desires and ideals are already direct expres-
sions within our spirits of heavenly reality seek-
ing to make itself known. We should be as free
to believe in that reality and to respond to it as
to open our mouths and sing or to play upon a
musical instrument. Even if our spiritual eyes
are not in any sense open, something in our inner
nature is open, we may at least respond in
spiritual feeling. By this feeling we already
know through subtle affinity what is sound and
what is true in many of the people we meet. By
it we are drawn and repelled. What is needed
is recognition of the activity of this higher power
in us and responsiveness to it.

All that we need is a clue or leading, some
indication of inner impressions yielding guid-
ances. For out of the clue may come truth with-
out limit, out of the initial guidance may come
leadings extending through a period of years.
Then we may learn to let the guidances come in
their own sequence, interposing no obstacles,
making no effort to shape them to our own ends.
Still further, we may learn to do creative work,
letting each detail develop as a musician might
develop a symphony out of an original theme.

Inner Perception 221

Thus inner perception may accompany us as a
standard throughout the years to the completion
of our work on earth, as the composer perfects
his theme till every note is complete in the fin-
ished symphony.

A standard tells us both what is sound and
true, and what is spurious. In spiritual matters
it gives us a certain ear for that which "rings
true." Our spirits grow in power to follow
"leadings*" We learn to listen more deeply,
truly, with less interference of intellect or will.
We are more confident that we really receive
guidances, over and above our mere thought.
We are no longer troubled by doubts lest in our
inadvertent subconsciousness we have generated
the whole content of these inner deliverances.
We are not only aware by experience that a
guidance has a certain quality but also aware of
the fruits or results.

Thus our thought passes beyond the region
of doubts and difficulties. We had to pass
through that period because our intellectual
training made us critical, and because there is
much that is spurious on the road from the psychi-
cal into the spiritual. But now at last we have
reached a period where, believing unqualifiedly
in intuition and daring to follow the clues which
our experience has yielded, we appeal directly to
the inner standard and ask, Does my inner self

222 The Open Vision

give assent? Does this teaching ring true?
Does it accord with the best my life and thought
have yielded? For what is foreign to my inner
constitution is no concern of mine. What is for
me I am likely to acknowledge at once. Many
other matters I may pass by as of no more mo-
ment than mere noise. What is really for me
belongs 'with my guidances, for these have a
coherence or unity not of my own making. Far
indeed from me is the open vision in its purity.
But I at least contemplate it as an ideal. I am
not cut off from the realities which it discloses.
I possess at least a residue of inner perception,
awaiting recognition and development. Best of
all, I see at least in a glass darkly that this is a
residue of the divine presence. As a child of
God, made in the divine image and likeness, my
very nature is akin to the Reality of realities
whence has come the true, the beautiful, and the
good.

XV

HOW TO KNOW INNER GUIDANCE

By the term "guidance" one means an impres-
sion, leading, prompting or warning which either
indicates the wise course to pursue or restrains
us, bids us take thought and direct our efforts
more carefully. Guidance may come spontane-
ously, unsought and unexpected, in the form of a
positive check or a premonition; or, it may be
consciously sought through conditions with which
we become acquainted when impressions or warn-
ing come spontaneously. In the latter case, it is
usually sought through silence and meditation,
by receptive listening or waiting, and by taking
the whole matter in question under advisement
amid the conditions most favorable for dispas-
sionate thought. It may come in response to a
half-felt desire on our part or in answer to
prayer. It may pertain to the incidental action
of the moment or to the purpose one seeks to
realize in a life-time. It may come like a vision
out of a clear sky or amidst conditions which when
intimately understood disclose the way to seek
it consciously. It is best understood in the long
run by reference to its sources, the channels

223

224 The Open Vision

through which it comes, and its meaning in con-
nection with a spiritual philosophy of life. We
may also study it in relation to man's higher
nature as qualified by the personal equation, for
we find that in some people the coming of guid-
ance is a strongly marked characteristic implying
unusual receptivity or special fitness.

Guidance believed in as divine in origin im-
plies the living presence of God with us, as in
biblical times, through the Spirit made concrete
to man in the developments of inner experience.
Thus regarded, guidance implies a purpose for
each of us inclusive of all that is essential to our
eternal welfare and work. The basis of guid-
ance is therefore the divine providence conceived
of as a continuous manifestation of love and
wisdom for our care and preservation. As thus
understood guidance exists for all men whether
there be any awareness of it or not, since we all
belong to one spiritual race, with the possibility
of becoming brothers and co-workers in actual
consciousness. Regarded as social, guidance in-
volves our relatedness to one another in the inner
world, and hence it is known by its high quality.

The presence of God with us as providence
or guiding and sustaining Spirit includes what
is known as spiritual light, "the inward
light" as it is usually called. To obtain divine
guidance is to lift our problems into that light

How to Know Inner Guidance 225

with the admission that there is a higher way than
our own. To be led by the Spirit is to perceive
the heavenly light on life's pathway. There is
in deepest truth a way of life, a pathway of the
soul leading from the infancy of our experience
to maturity. To know that light which shines
on our pathway in its fulness would be to be-
hold heavenly reality face to face, in the open
vision. The inward light if faithfully followed
would lead us to the reality behind all appear-
ances in such a way that we should individually
know it, feel it, live by it; and have no need for
secondary sources of instruction on spiritual mat-
ters save as reminders.

The inward light, humanly speaking, is the
individual's participation in that heavenly light
which, like the sun, shines universally. The
source is the same for all. The human spirit re-
ceives what it may under the prevailing condi-
tions. The light is divine but it is mediated to
man through his own nature and the states of
life through which he passes. Man listens with
the inner ear, thinks with his spirit, responds
through the promptings of the heart. Then his
inward prompting takes shape through his men-
tality and his outward life.

It might be said that guidance is simply the
awakening of our own higher nature. Plainly,
some of our deeper incentives to action arise from

226 The Open Vision

within the self, especially when our better nature
is aroused in protest. Thus Emerson assures us
that "the soul's emphasis is always right." "That
is right which is according to my constitution,
that is wrong which is against it." "The soul
contains in itself the event which shall presently
befall it, for the event is only the actualization of
its thoughts. It is no wonder that particular
dreams and presentiments should fall out and be
prophetic." But one might overdo this individ-
ualism. It is imperative that one consider how
our guidances relate to the welfare of other
people and accord with what other people are led
to do. We have also to consider the nature and
sources of those guidances which bring evidence
of relationship to the divine presence as the real
efficiency of the inner life. Naturally we explain
as many experiences as possible on the basis of
our own intuitions, just as we take into account
the deliverances of our subconsciousness. But,
again, we are minded to ask, What is the ultimate
basis of intuition?

As I have tried to show in a lengthy discussion
elsewhere,1 the line between ordinary thought and
guidance is difficult to draw. Guidance is essen-
tially an experience. It is obtainable through
the whole mind, and when one seeks it one brings
to the experience whatever wisdom lif e has given

i "The Philosophy of the Spirit," p. 300.

How to Know Inner Guidance 227

us up to that time. Hence in a large sense of
the word it may simply be a clue or leading for
its recipient to follow according to what life has
previously taught him to believe. Much will de-
pend upon the interpretation which he puts upon
his leadings. The same experience which one
man would interpret as a guidance, another
would explain as a mere instance of inductive
reasoning. Yet we need not be disconcerted be-
cause there are varying interpretations or by the
fact that many people are totally unaware of
guidances. In the life of those who follow the
developments of experience with observant re-
sponsiveness, without desire to control where con-
trol would be an intrusion, there are unmistak-
able signs of guidance, signs which lead to the
classification of impressions and leadings accord-
ing to types. Thus guidance is classified with
reference to its sources, the means through which
it comes or the ends to which it leads. Its origin
may be obscure to us at first, but we may have
strong reasons for distinguishing it from ordi-
nary thought. Or the result to which it leads
may be so impressive that we are led retrospec-
tively to its origins with new insights into the
providence of God.

Guidances are knowable by their quality, and
through the fact that they are capable of being
tested in contrast with mere inclination, desire or

228 The Open Vision

self-interest. Thus a guidance, coming unex-
pectedly like a gift from a person who knows our
inner or urgent need, may bring a certain
conviction that it is from beyond our mere
selfhood. This may be either on account
of its disinterestedness, because it is social,
pertains to the welfare of other people and
lifts us above all petty motives; or because
it checks our proposed action sufficiently to give
us a wholly different view, because it calls us to
account, stands out in unmistakable authority
and power. Again, we recognize guidance be-
cause it comes infrequently, when especially
needed or at the eleventh hour, when we have
drawn upon every resource at hand, when faith
has done its best. Often too, its coming is an
instance of such precise correspondence between
supply and demand that we are deeply impressed
by its implications. People engaged in religious
work have most impressive experiences to tell
about resources put into their hands from un-
expected directions when they most needed what
came. Sometimes the relationship is precise to
the very dollar.

Thus guidances often point to a spiritual con-
nection between people working together toward
the same end, and a relationship with those in
need whom they can help, which reaches beyond
all consciously acquired information. Guid-

How to Know Inner Guidance 229

ances coming to the same individual in the course
of twenty years or half a life-time may so prove
to belong together as to point very directly to the
divine purpose, in an ideal direction which is seen
to be best or wisest in contrast with all appear-
ances. Therefore one is prompted to make
fewer plans as the years pass, and to hold more
matters open for true solution through guidance
when the time shall come. In our eagerness and
impatience we would like to know just how we
are to reach our goal. The fact that guidance
is so long withheld but that it comes in time, in-
dicates its character or quality.

Moreover, guidance not only leaves us full op-
portunity for experience by withholding much
that we would like to know till the time comes,
but grants us a chance to make mistakes, and by
disregarding its leadings to see how strong and
true they were after all. Guidance does not
coerce us. It leaves us free. It appeals to our
freedom and in no way absolves us from respon-
sibility. There is still room for faith. In fact
one must often proceed more or less in the dark,
awaiting the developments of each day when the
day comes. Faith is required to believe in guid-
ance in the first place, and every act of respon-
siveness to it is an act of faith. Guidance always
comes as an alternative which might be rejected.
It appeals to individuality. It grows more pro-

230 The Open Vision

nounced with recognition or wanes if ignored
and denied entrance. It indicates a way in which
we may walk, if we will, with successive leadings
for successive steps ; but we may continue to try
our own way if we prefer. Thus guidance
stands out in the course of years because it per-
tains to our eternal welfare, what is spiritually
essential, leaving us free to add the particulars as
we proceed. By its presence we come to realize
more clearly that there really is "a way ever-
lasting."

Those who note the contrasts of inner experi-
ence and learn to listen for leadings also find that
guidance increases with use, becomes more im-
pressive and effective with the passing of time.
Thus the conviction grows that there is always
with us a true inward light by which ideas and
plans may be tested. Naturally the increasing
definiteness of guidance depends to some extent
on the interpretation put upon it, hence if be-
lieved in as divine the recipient makes more ef-
fort to purify the inner life that guidance may
come in purer form. Then too something de-
pends on one's view of success in the world.
If one believes that true success means fidelity
to the divine purpose, more effort is made to over-
come every obstacle which might interfere with
guidance in its purity.

Guidance in the higher sense of the word may

How to Know Inner Guidance 231

also be known by contrast with other mental ac-
tivities, for example, what we call prudence. By
noting bodily sensations such as fatigue, we infer
that we need rest or change. We also take our
clues from nerve-impressions indicating tension,
excitement, disturbance of the normal rhythms,
and impeding conditions of the brain. We do
not always take rest, food, or sleep when needed ;
but the conditions are present which show the
need. In the same way the body warns us
against inordinate desire, carnal passions, excess
in all its forms. The instinct of self-preserva-
tion is strong in us, and any number of signs
which, if heeded, would guard us from emotional
excitement and other detrimental states. We
discover tendencies to relax in case of injury to
the organism, also other promptings that help
us to overcome pain. The knowledge from ex-
perience which we gain by being prudent and
observant aids us to acquire the art of life with
regard to bodily welfare. But all knowledge
gained in this way is mere subject-matter for
guidance in its higher form. Observing, for
example, that the body needs rest, that the
nervous system is exhausted, we take the need
"under advisement," awaiting the opportunity
which guidance discloses in its own way, in its
own time. Guidance may be akin to instinct, but
it yields far more. Bodily instinct often relates

232 The Open Vision

to physical self-preservation alone and might be
harmonious with selfishness. (Guidance relates
to spiritual service and leads to unselfishness.}, ^
Life in general under guidance might be com-
pared to a journey through a forest. Some-
times there are roads plainly marked, sometimes
mere paths. Again, the way is obscure, the
paths cross and one must proceed tentatively.
With a general direction in mind, we endeavor
to keep the way, each according to his experience
and insight, his knowledge of life and its leadings
at various junctures. Coming to a place where
the roads divide, we pause to observe and con-
sider. Some men judge largely by signs and in-
dications and by what they know in general about
the woods. Some proceed experimentally, now
on this path, now on that, awaiting evidences
that point to the right one. The more open-
minded ones try by inner impression to discover
the right direction, while a few with a directness
akin to that of the Indian who has kept unspoiled
the instincts of primitive man turn to the right
road without hesitation. Becoming more accus-
tomed to the whole experience of finding our way,
some of us make our way through thick woods,
over hills and across mountains where there are
no paths. We depend less upon signs and
guesses or inferences, and more on intuition or
inward impression. The higher the form of

How to Know Inner Guidance 233

guidance the less need there is for external obser-
vation and inference.

Guidance, like the promptings of instinct, is
discovered in the first place through spontaneous
impressions, such as the feeling that a given road
is right, a prompting to look in a certain place
for a lost article, or a sudden warning of
approaching danger, "a feeling in the bones."
Again, it may be a first-hand impression of
human character, favorable or unfavorable. We
may have a feeling that a surprise is in store for
us, that a change is coming into our life, a great
sorrow or joy, yet we may be unable as yet to
tell what the forthcoming event or change is to
be or when it is coming. A deterring impression
regarding a proposed plan of action may arise,
but without any reason for it. A reaction may
arise within the self against the work we are en-
gaged in, although we are still unaware why our
better selfhood should protest against it. Thus
a deterring impression may disclose the fact that
we stand at the parting of the ways, howbeit we
have no idea what is in store for us. Those of
us who note and welcome these spontaneous im-
pressions and follow them, find that guidance
in its distinctive sense presently discloses itself.

The believer in guidance awaits impressions
which shall indicate whether a proposed plan of
action be right. "If the way opens," we hear

234 The Open Vision

l" ■■ il ■ l l l ■———-■.■nil ii ill. ■ <m .— — ■■ ■—■■■■■—■■■■■ ill I ii ■■■ ■■■■—■>T — . i i i i ■ — ■■— .— ,..,.

them say, let us go on; if it does not open, we
shall know that it is not right. If one is
prompted to proceed despite all promising signs,
one concludes that it is because there is a wisdom
in pressing on till a more distinct leading shall
indicate the way. Unexpectedly the way may
open for the realization of an ideal cherished for
many years but not insisted upon in one's own
mere selfhood. One may have what some one
called "a wave of happiness" as a sign that the
way or plan just embarked on is the right one.
One may even "see" oneself engaged in a partic-
ular work under contemplation, or may see one-
self actually arrived at the desired destination.
From this strong impression one may conclude
that the way is indeed right.

Some believers in guidance say that when they
have a "conviction" that a way under consider-
ation is the right one to embark on they know
they should go ahead, and that each step will
disclose itself when the time comes. Hence they
confidently anticipate success, even in the face
of circumstances which point to failure. Accord-
ingly, they lay aside the anxieties which beset
most of us and give their minds more fully to the
inner leadings, realizing that both receptivity and
faith are essential.

Furthermore, knowledge of guidance increases
with study, by endeavoring to work out the laws

How to Know Inner Guidance 235

which they imply, to think out the philosophy of
life which they call for. Retrospect may show,
for example, that guidances came from stage to
stage of one's journey when needed at the time,
with sufficient wisdom for those occasions, and
so one may increase faith in the principle of sup-
ply and demand, looking elsewhere in life for
confirmations of this principle.

One may supplement these studies by contacts
with nature. We learn, for example, the value
of returning for a time to the simple life in which
we drop out of our tensions. Walking in the
woods alone, or otherwise adapting ourselves to
conditions that bring rest and freedom, we at
the same time observe without realizing it the
inner conditions which bring to us the guidance
which could not arise into our consciousness
while we were so actively absorbed in the world
of external affairs. Such contrasts make us
better acquainted with guidance as opposed to
any plan of our own. Help may come to us
through any change of scene or environment,
from city to country or back again from country
to city ; in a crowd or away from " the madding
crowd;" through travel or by learning to be truly
"at home." Different ones of us have our ways
of dropping out of our over-activities, that we
may pick up the detached lines of activity, come
to ourselves, return to our spontaneity, get a

236 The Open Vision

fresh impetus; and make ready to be more true
to guidance. Every one who becomes progress-
ively aware of guidance, learns how to rise above
conditions and processes, above localisms and
associates, in quest of new perspectives and broad-
ened vision.

"Commune with your own heart upon your
bed and be still," says the psalmist. Turn from
outward matters with a sense of turning to some-
thing very high and noble, with quiet inner ex-
pectancy. Believe convincingly that what is in
line with your high purpose in life will disclose
itself, that the way will open. Be ready to re-
ceive light through any instrumentality, yet
above all expect it from the highest source. If
your guidances in the past have come in connec-
tion with an uplifting consciousness indicating
the presence of higher power, endeavor to regain
this consciousness as a means to the guidance you
would now seek. Consecrate yourself anew,
willing to forego even the most cherished plan,
ready to change your residence, your occupation,
your co-workers, and any condition that may
not be in full accord with the divine purpose for
you.

You may learn to know guidance from all its
opposites, if you will. You may find that as it
comes in the course of the years it classifies itself
under various heads or types, so that your phil-

How to Know Inner Guidance 237

osophy of guidance will enlarge to fit your ex-
perience. Most guidances may seem to call for
no further agency than your own intuition or in-
ner perception. But others may bring evid-
ences that the divine presence is more intimately
with you. Still others may seem to come to you
through intimate relationship with those akin
to you. Thus a friend may come to you, with a
warning or advice, which is like a word from
heaven to you, although the friend may be un-
aware of serving as a messenger to your soul. A
whole chapter in your life may stand out from
all others because of guidances coming in what
we call "a remarkable way." Or, more rarely, a
guidance may associate itself with the spiritual
world. Whatever the channels or instrumental-
ities, there is one ultimate source. He comes to
know guidance best who comes to know God most
truly.

Many guidances doubtless come to us through
psychical means. Probably all guidances have
psychical associates or relationships. But it is
a question of the criterion or standard and that
is the open vision. It is a question of the source
and the providence or purpose and that is divine.
Hence we may place little stress on the means
or instrumentality. Undoubtedly the best result
that can come to those of us who have made our
way through the thickets of the psychical world

238 The Open Vision

— — ^— ■ 1 1 i i —————————

is our faith in guidance. For guidance not only
gives a working principle to live by but a prin-
ciple by which to interpret inner perception or
the open vision wherever found, it not only dis-
closes the meaning of man's spiritual history on
earth but reveals the pathway into the future life.

XVI

A DOCTRINAL OBJECTION

There is a certain attitude of mind which sets
itself squarely against any effort to return to the
original sources of guidance. Everything that
men should know concerning spiritual matters
is said to be contained within the creeds and doc-
trines of the particular church to which the rep-
resentative of this attitude chances to belong.
The doctrines are said to be inerrant, the church
in question a divine institution to be accepted as
found. There could not be errors of doctrine
because in God's providence all errors were pre-
vented. To question the creeds would be to
follow the dictates of one's own intellect. To
question the authority of the church would be
blasphemous. The intellect likes to rule and is
reluctant to yield supremacy. It accepts what is
pleasing and is fond of searching for errors.
But the intellect should submit itself to doctrine,
seeking only those evidences which confirm the
creeds and sustain the church, endeavoring to
expound the revealed doctrines as absolute truth.
For revelation is closed. No further evidences
are needed. What we possess is complete and

239

240 The Open Vision

final. To seek alleged truth in psychical experi-
ences, for instance, is to dabble in "the new black
magic/ ' as a recent Roman Catholic writer calls
it.

The answer which most of us make nowadays
is that we believe in the continuous presence of
God and the spiritual world, with the possibility
of new disclosures of truth. These new utter-
ances may not carry us beyond what is universal
in the teachings of the past, but they may be
better adapted to our age. We believe in the
living Word of God. We believe in the living
Christ, risen and glorified. We hold that God
still has guidance for us and that in His provid-
ence it will be adapted to our needs.

It is well, however, to press the matter further
than this and to raise objections to this doctrinal
position. In the first place, it claims more for
the church, Catholic or Protestant ; for the creeds
and doctrines, whatever their source of authority,
than can be claimed for the Bible itself. The
Bible was deemed inerrant or infallible before
modern scholarship taught us to take the per-
sonal equation into account, before we realized
the fallibility of language, the variations of texts,
and the influence of custom, belief, tradition.
Now we realize that all these human elements
are found within the same book which also con-
tains divine truth. The Bible may still be re-

A Doctrinal Objection 241

garded as inspired in so far as we penetrate be-
hind appearances to the reality within them, the
reality which requires inner perception for its
discernment. We are no longer able to main-
tain the theory that the text is inerrant as it reads.
The value of any principle of interpretation lies
in its applicability, through discovery of the in-
ner truth or living Word. This Word will not
conflict with universal truth as disclosed in human
history at large, or with human reason enlight-
ened by spiritual experience.

The second objection is found in the fact that
for better or worse men use their intellects both
in the process of accepting a principle of inter-
pretation, a creed, or the authority of the church,
and in searching for truth in the Bible. At best
we are left with mysteries not yet explained.
We must make headway as best we can, en-
deavoring to use our powers to the full, guided
by the highest spiritual light we can find. Au-
thorities still differ in all the churches. There
are always "two wings." The Christian Church
is still divided into sects which place as much
emphasis on the doctrinal differences which
sunder as on the love which is supposed to unite.
On many points of divergence there is no decis-
ive teaching either in the Bible or in the creeds
or doctrines. The text of the Bible contains
gaps and ambiguities, some of which will prob-

242 The Open Vision

ably never be resolved. At best, we are progress-
ing toward divine truth. No one is in a position
to call others to account for using reason as a
guide.

The third objection turns upon a discovery
which might almost be regarded as a truism to-
day, namely, that all things divine are given
through human instrumentality, hence that the
divine cannot be understood by itself but is intel-
ligible through its mediating conditions. This is
the meaning of the profound change of emphasis
from the transcendence to the immanence of God,
from the inaccessible to the immediate or divine
in the human, "the divine human." Back of the
whole question of truth as opposed to error lies
this deeper issue pertaining to the human means
through which the divine is adapted to our needs.
To continue to believe in the Bible as containing
divine truth despite all modern criticism is to be
prepared to show, however imperfectly, how the
Bible might have been written as a divine-human
book through various means at different periods.
To discern the divine truth is to understand the
part played by the open vision, by inner percep-
tion, the psychical element, the figurative ele-
ment of language, the place of myth, symbolism,
tradition. What we need is a profound philoso-
phy of the correspondence between the natural
and the spiritual.

A Doctrinal Objection 243

Unable to maintain their position in behalf of
inerrant doctrines, the critics try another ap-
proach. They now charge the liberals with an
attempt to use subjective experience as the test
of truth. This objection is urged in several
ways. Any one who claims to have been led by
experience is said to be seeking means of religious
development outside of the churches, with their
authorized means of regeneration. To believe
in one's own experience is to be a mystic, and mys-
ticism is of course "heresy." To look to experi-
ence for wisdom is to try to invent a substitute
for Christianity. Subjective experience can
never be a test of truth because it is full of illus-
ions, if not delusions, through taking one's inner
life too seriously; hence it leads to false ideas of
God and many other errors.

Granting that there is truth in this criticism in
the case of some who make special claims, it is
hardly fair to judge current teachings by that
which is least sound in them, ignoring all the rest.
The larger consideration is that no one ever
really believed anything religious except on the
basis of personal or subjective experience. We
have not all made this clarifying discovery but
the sooner we make it the better; for we will
then be able to avoid undue claims in behalf of
the human self. The critic may be challenged
to produce any item of effective belief not con-

244 The Open Vision

ditioned by what experience has led men to
accept. We have indeed reached the period of ex-
act science as opposed to individual opinion, and
in the special sciences we make allowances for the
element of experience in so far as it may be an
interference. We have made some headway in
the development of spiritual science as opposed
to speculative theology. But in spiritual matters
it is still a question of the best use to make of
powers or "gifts," and knowledge ripened by
experience. For better or worse we are all in
the same position. We either start with the
needs, longings and clues of inner experience,
and seek an explanation of them; or, we accept
certain teachings for the time being and then
seek their deeper values when experience has
corrected or verified them.

Especially in matters pertaining to the life
after death we find that doctrine falls so far
short of what the heart longs for, namely, the
experienced nearness of the spiritual world, that
we come to realize the test of experience as the
real test of what we actually believe. When/
death comes into the household with its deepen-/
ing experiences, we often find that those who^
urged the doctrines of conventional theology^
upon us have the least spiritual food to give./
But others who speak from the heart because

A Doctrinal Objection 245

they have lived and experienced may bring that
wisdom which touches the heart, may open up
a new gateway to experience. And so with the
new birth. It is not that people have sought
substitutes for the methods of the churches, but
that when the real inner upheaval with its tests
at last arrives men begin to learn realities from
experience which surpass the doctrines and show
their inadequacy.

The religious devotee should be the last man
in the world to protest against the appeal to
experience, for it is he who makes most use of it
and should be most concerned to interpret it
aright in all its bearings, psychical as well as
spiritual. How, it might be asked, did any one
at any point in the race's history come to believe
in spiritual things save through experience, nota-
bly those experiences which spring up spontane-
ously outside of the institutions? And how did
any one else ever come to accept what the first
man believed save through some experience or
inner clue in his own life ? What is the value of
religious instruction if not to acquaint people
with the realities of experience that they may
come to recognize principles which seers have dis-
closed? How shall we take our seers in earnest
unless we look for equivalent evidences within
individual experience? And why not judge in-

246 The Open Vision

ner experience by the best results which it yields,
instead of dwelling on the mystical delusions of
those who take themselves too seriously?

What we need is a philosophy of human ex-
perience in the light of its successive states
throughout history and leading up to two-world
experiences as foundations for understanding
the natural in relation to the spiritual. Such a
philosophy would lead us to look in each age for
the wisdom needed in that age. Thus in our
own times we would look for new quickenings in
response to the restlessness and searchings of
heart coincident with the war. We would not
rebel against but would welcome the awakening
of interest in psychical phenomena, asking our-
selves, What is its meaning? Why are people
heart-hungry? Why have the churches failed
to meet the new needs ? What if we should turn
about and try to put ourselves in imagination
into the point of view of an enlightened spirit in
the other life seeking to be of service to his fellow-
men here? Would it not seem pathetic that
many of God's supposed representatives on
earth are so closed in spirit to present-day guid-
ance that not by any possibility could an enlight-
ening idea be put in edgewise?

It is refreshing to turn to the clarifying arti-
cle by Mrs. W. Hinkley, in an English periodi-
cal, in which the writer subtly rebukes the con-

A Doctrinal Objection 247

servative in the Church of England by quoting
sentences here and there from recent automatic-
ally received messages. Note, for example, the
yearning to reach people on our plane expressed
in the following. "If I could only reach you, if
I could only tell you. ... I long for power.
. . . Oh, if I could get to you, could give you
proof positive that I remember, recall, know,
continue ... all that we imagined is not half
wonderful enough for the truth, that immortal-
ity, instead of being a beautiful dream, is the one,
the only reality/' l

If any one still doubts that there has been an
advance in such messages, that they give definite
ideas about the future life which we may put
with the best we already know concerning this
life, let him read the excerpts made by Mrs.
Hinkley, among which are these:

"You can hardly by any stretch of the imagin-
ation realize what a change it is to live in a place
where the only test is character, where property,
station and work do not count, no, nor religious
profession. We see things as they are, not as
they are labelled. We have such surprises to
encounter, such amazing revelations of the esti-
mates in which men and women are held."

"The man (arriving here) finds this world
very much what he has made it. Y»ou see the

i Nineteenth Century, Nov., 1919, p. 930.

248 The Open Vision

results of your life's work, thoughts and deeds.
You make your next life, you do it day by day,
hour by hour. There is no sudden transform-
ation. You are as you were. There is no break
of continuity; you start where you left off, what
you are you remain."

"He who will not trust his own soul has lost it.
And he who will not trust the voice of God in his
own soul will seek for it in vain in the voices be-
yond the border."

"The whole of the evils that affect human
society arise from the lack of seeing- things from
the standpoint of the soul."

"Take time to think of those you love. With-
out thinking of people you lose vital connection
with them. For love dies if you never think of
the person loved."

"What burdens the soul most is selfishness;
what helps it most is love. You do not always
realize that you can bless or curse with a thought.
. . . By thinking kindly and lovingly of persons,
not dwelling on their failings but on their virtues,
you can help them to throw their faults aside."

"You cannot estimate the value of true prayer.
To us it seems as if you were like children set
down in a great power-house, not knowing the
importance of the switches and electric forces
around you."

"All that we value in the old life, all real

A Doctrinal Objection 249

things, love, friendship, beauty, understanding,
thoughts, feelings, you will bring here with you
to weave into the new life, which is full of beau-
ties and joys which have not entered into the
heart of man in your state yet."

"You do not feel as if you had come to a
strange place here, but as if you had come home.
Nothing will be lost. I can see from here the
various kinds of links which bind people together,
none of them breakable by such a thing as death.
Of all the real things that we have loved the life
and likeness will be gathered and kept for us.
One of the things I have learned in these months
is the immense power of thought; you can see
from here how people change and mould them-
selves by their thought. Every hard thing you
say or feel for another makes your path and his
harder."

"I had no notion how much effect we have on
each other . . . the living and the dead. . . .
Your pain is ours, our joy might be yours. The
more you realize our nearness so much the nearer
we can come. Pray for us all, living and resur-
rected; there is a great bond between us."

"I think it is as hard for us when people can-
not realize our union with them as it is for them
when they can think of us only with pain and re-
gret. It is an attitude of mind which could be
changed by an effort of will."

250 The Open Vision

"Believe that there is always perfect strength
and perfect understanding waiting to be strongly
claimed. . . . How can I make you see the great
power of prayer? It is far the strongest thing
in the world, yet no one seems to use it except in
the most tentative way."

Do these messages have anything significant
to say concerning the doctrines of the churches?
Yes, they indicate the short-sightedness of many
of them. For example, some one says: "Never
think of Christ as the Divine scapegoat : think of
Him as Love incarnate taking men by the hand.
(Jt is the doctrine of the substitution of Christ,
the sinless one, to satisfy the laws the sinner had
broken, that has done so much evil?) Christ's
death does not remove the effects of sin from any
human being. Every man here goes to the place
he has made for himself according as his life has
been. But however feeble the glimmerings of
goodness and truth, here they are fostered and
strengthened."

After a study of such messages, Mrs. Hinkley
strongly emphasizes the moral continuity of the
future life with this one, the fact that we go on
in that life where we left off here. She also em-
phasizes the persistence of human responsibility,
which has been "terribly blurred, indeed prac-
tically denied, by the . . . theory of the atone-
ment, and by the doctrine of imputed righteous-

A Doctrinal Objection 251

ness." The Church, she thinks, has failed to de-
scribe the future life in such a way as "to make
it seem real or desirable to a world of living,
energizing men and women." By its many omis-
sions, the Church has repelled innumerable souls.
In truth, religion should "enlarge her outlook
until she gratefully recognizes as co-workers with
her every means of grace that the universe offers,
all the experiences that shiver our stupid satis-
faction with the things of the flesh, and pierce our
too-absorbed preoccupation with its poor needs."
What we need is the dawning of the deepening
sense of the incomparably keener joys and griefs
of the spirit.

It is indeed "a commonplace today that men
are reaching out with great desire for a vaster,
more comprehensive and harmonious conception
of the Author of the universe, one congruous with
the whole of life, than is offered by orthodox
theology." We have outgrown the orthodox
scheme. We need a view of man's inner life
founded on knowledge of the two worlds. We
need to understand the principle of correspond-
ence or relationship between inward states and
outward conditions. Above all, we need a vital-
izing conception of the divine in the human.

It is well to remind ourselves once more that
doctrines began to be needed in an unfavorable
time when men had lost the open vision. Doc-

252 The Open Vision

trines were not and never could be substitutes
for real life or experience. They are means to
ends only, the highest end being love to God and
man. Doctrines are of no value unless man lives
by them in such a way to experience the realities
for which they stand as mere abbreviations.
They are not faith itself but reminders of what
faith may become when introduced into the will
and carried into effective conduct.

True doctrine may indeed serve to unite men
with God and to lead the way to experience.
Hence it is important to inquire more and more
deeply into the relationship between doctrine and
experience, to see if the doctrines which still have
life in them are large enough to represent the
newer meanings of the inner life today. It is
through the spirit that man is united with his
fellowmen. On doctrinal grounds alone men
differ. If the various sects of the Christian
Church shall sometime unite, will it not be on
the basis of the Christian life, through genuine
return to the original teachings of the Gospels,
in contrast with the theological systems which
have been imposed upon them?

If in accord with the above messages we should
begin to teach universally on this earth, as liberals
already teach, that character is the test, that our
moral experience here continues into the future
and shapes it by spiritual law, and that the next

A Doctrinal Objection 253

life is an attractive life, the whole face of things
would be changed. We might then begin to live
in all seriousness according to what we truly be-
lieve in our hearts, but which we hardly dare
express because it conflicts with the creeds.
Prayer would become dynamic, vitalizing, and
the whole emphasis would be put on the power
which prayer sets free, on the vitalizing result.
We would all trust the voice of God in the soul.
We would all view social problems from the
standpoint of the soul. We would all "take
time to think of those we love," that we might
keep the connection strong. And we would look
forward to the future life with confidence, know-
ing that in very truth all that we love from the
heart will survive. This would be a realization
of the ideal which Mrs. Hinkley suggests when
she speaks of "an undying and everpresent ten-
derness, to which death can make no difference."
If such messages accomplish nothing else, it is
to be hoped that they will tend to destroy once
for all the notion that death is in itself a decisive
event. For with the downfall of that doctrine
will go a thousand and one notions about hell.
Life will then be simplified into the successive
states of the soul in its progress into freedom and
the more abundant life. We will then see that it
is never a question of time or place, either in this
life or the next; but of our deeds and their con-

254 The Open Vision

sequences. In place of the alleged "eternal
punishment" which was read into the New Testa-
ment by the translators, we will adopt the teach-
ing of the literal Greek text, "age-everlasting
condemnation,' ' that is, the moral consequences
needed to fit the deed in the given cycle, how-
ever long that may be. The theory of eternal
punishment will go the way of all unnecessary
doctrines. Instead, we will begin to appreciate
at last the power of Love incarnate, God in the
human.

XVII

TO A MOTHER

Because I was in France when your son was
killed in action, you ask me how death may be
regarded as it comes in war-time, and what I
think of the efforts now so eagerly made to enter
into communication with "the dead." I will
answer as I should wish any one to write to me
under similar needs, out of the heart, whatever
the apparent conflict with prevalent beliefs.

Although not in action in the front lines, I
spent months in a cantonment behind the lines
where the wearied men awaited summons to the
next attack ; hence I had opportunity to converse
with those who had come as near as possible to
death in all the forms in which it is known at the
front. As a result, death seems less real, far
less important than ever before, and not at all to
be dreaded, despite the fact that it may come
under terrible conditions. I think of the soldier-
boys who have "gone West" as living, splendid
souls with the supposed "mystery" put behind
them, as they left their uniforms and their fleshly
garments, as they left the war behind. I think
of them as going on in moral and spiritual de-

255

256 The Open Vision

" * ' ■ ■' i

velopment from the point attained here, at first
with interests and occupations similar to some
they followed here, but eventually with higher ac-
tivities growing out of their more real knowledge
of life.

I had never thought of death as decisive, and
now it seems literally incidental. I had always
thought of the real life as spiritual and of the
future as interiorly continuous with this. Na-
turally then I had fewer fears to battle with when
I crossed the dangerous seas. No one escapes
such mental battles, however, and I suspect that
they are useful; since they are tests of our faith,
since each new situation gives us opportunity to
face the great realities as we have thus far in-
terpreted them. I must confess that death
seemed a momentary possibility one terrible
night in a bombarded city when I was exposed
to an air-raid on a lonely street, far from a
"shelter," and without protection from incendi-
ary gas-bombs. Yet under such conditions what
better attitude could one take than to believe
in guidance to fulfil one's part, whatever the
consequence? I learned then to realize the mean-
ing of the sense of law or "fate" which makes
so many of the soldiers fatalists but which I pre-
fer to interpret as guidance. Arriving at the
place where I was assigned for duty, I had a
most distinct feeling that I had passed through

To a Mother 257

the real dangers and could settle down into rela-
tive quietude, although exposed to dangers which
as the months passed proved more threatening
than those of the first few nights. I cannot con-
vey to you the reality of that feeling. I can
only say that it was unmistakable and strong,
so strong that I felt renewed faith in the presence
and reality of spiritual forces as the truly de-
cisive forces in human life, even in war-time, even
during an attack by the enemy and during air-
raids at night when death-dealing bombs fall so
quickly that one scarcely has opportunity to
think before it is all over.

I speak of this personal faith in spiritual re-
alities by way of introduction to the greater
thought of death as an event in spiritual living.
For I believe that under the pressure of circum-
stances many soldiers felt this same sense of
higher reality, however they may have inter-
preted it, and that some were sustained by it, by
an awareness of life that made of death itself
a wholly different experience from what we com-
monly anticipate. It was perhaps on account
of this interior nearness to spiritual realities that
some of the men beheld, or thought they beheld,
angels or "the Being in White," or supernatural
soldiers fighting on their side. I do not know
that it matters whether their spiritual eyes were
open so that they saw anything or not. It would

258 The Open Vision

be futile perhaps to inquire. What does signify
is the sense of reality, the fact that when hard
pressed our spirits are in more intimate touch
with what is spiritually real, with what we call
the presence of God, the presence of Christ, or
the spiritual world. Doubtless our views color
what we seem to see or to feel. I merely sug-
gest one possible view when I say that for me,
when dangers were most threatening, what I call
"guidance'' seemed of a piece with a long series
of inner impressions starting with the first night
of imminent peril at sea and continuing till I ar-
rived at Brest en route for home. The inner
feelings may be very much the same with all of
us while the interpretations differ. For ex-
ample, the French soldiers of peasant types,
whom I came to know particularly well, seemed
to have retained unspoiled the primitive faith of
early Christianity in the nearness of the spiritual
world and the presence of guardian angels.
Knowing nothing of the critical tendencies of
modern thought which have refined angels away
into "good thoughts," and removed the spiritual
world into the pigeon-holes of dogma, they had
kept the simplicity of heart of the childhood of
the world, that simplicity which we associate with
the open vision. It mattered not that they were
Roman Catholics with manifold beliefs which I
could not share ; what signified was the untainted-

To a Mother 259

ness of spirit which led me to believe that death
for these simple-hearted "poilus" would be a
beautiful transition, to which their beliefs would
be no obstacle.

I am led to speak of death, therefore, as a
fulfilment and a beginning; not a calamity or
interruption. Hence I think of it in terms of
beauty surpassing our prosaic speech. It seems
to me an unfolding, a disclosure following upon
a transformation scene in which the ugliness of
the battle-field gives place to a vision of other
realities hardly to be hinted at by our material
terms. If this imagery be truthfully suggestive,
then death is an awakening such that during the
earlier moments the participant hardly knows
that he is what we call "dead." For there he
surely is, with all that he cares for most in his
selfhood, with his character, affections, faith, and
the impetus of will which carried him forward
to meet his death. There too are his associates
and comrades in the wondrous transition. Soon
he will recognize friends who have long preceded
him, and he will begin to look back with yearn-
ing to those who will call him "dead," who will
grieve over him as if they had no faith whatever
in the human spirit as a being of life and power,
as if they really did not believe in immortality.

"Dead!" How strange a word to apply to one
who was never so much alive before! Why

260 The Open Vision

should we cling to the word? Why not think
and live in spirit with our loved ones, not as if
they had really lost or suffered anything by the
transition, but as having gained so much that we
might almost wish we could lay aside our uni-
forms too?

Why should you not live with your son in
spirit, in tender nearness of heart, as with you,
despite all appearances and separateness ? Pic-
ture him then in his best state of life and love
and thought. Do not let any thought of war's
horrors and disfigurements mar your mental pic-
ture. Call up your best and dearest memories of
his childhood and young manhood, and put with
these blessed recollections your thought of his
bravery and faith in entering upon the last battle
and meeting death — not in defeat but in spiritual
victory. Continue to think of him in this way
and without any reference to his age as the years
pass. Keep close to him as a living, progressing
spirit, full of a new helpfulness, better able than
ever to be of real service in the world of his
present comrades.

As for the possibility of communicating with
him through a medium, I fear that what I have
to say is disappointing. I am not a spiritualist
and have never seen mediums receiving any of
these communications. I do not write auto-
matically and am very sceptical about the reality

To a Mother 261

of any messages coming through the ouija-board.
Nor have I even investigated spiritism in the
manner of the psychical researchers. It has al-
ways seemed to me that one should never seek
communications unless unmistakably led by one's
guidances to do so, and I have never received
any such guidance. But if the door has always
remained closed in these directions it may be
open in others. If you ask me whether I believe
in spirit-return, all that I need say is that I have
never believed in spirit-departure. Why should
we if we hold that we are spirits now, and that
we are interiorly akin to and related with our
dear ones in the eternal life?

What reason is there then for yielding to de-
spair, as if we simply must have a message, must
know that our loved ones still live? What is
desirable is not anxiety, not out-reaching or ef-
fort to call forth a message through one channel
or another. Let this activity cease and with it
all grief and all ideas of death as mere death.
What you should cultivate, rather, is calmness,
quiet constancy in your daily life, in your thought
of your son, who has not "gone" but is here in
the eternal present, in the spiritual world which
might always have seemed a reality to us had we
not been hampered by other ideas.

You need no medium between your love and
his. You need no message to quicken your

/

262 The Open Vision

power of thought. Let yourself live your own
spiritual life. Think of this life as God's gift
to you, that you may be a true mother, here and
hereafter. Keep the thought of God close to
you, in your heart, in your daily needs, as guid-
ance, as providence, as ever-present wisdom and
love. Then extend this thought of God to in-
clude your son in his new life, as the union be-
tween you, the Heart within your hearts, the love
within your mutual affection. Realize that you
will keep closest to him by living here in this
world as he lives there, that is, as a spirit, as a
child of God.

If you cultivate this attitude, whatever guid-
ance may be needed will come. As eagerly as
you may have longed for a message, realize that
you possess the open door to another kind of
recognition. It might be difficult for you to
obtain a satisfactory message, after months of
searching. At best the communications would
be relatively external, and you would need the
confirmations of inner impression, you would
need to feel the actual presence, to be thoroughly
convinced. Why not then think of the inner re-
lationship as in no way broken? If that rela-
tionship ever comes to mean something more real
to you, it will be because of your inner silence or
calmness; because you will be more at home in
the inner world, no longer distraught by outward

To a Mother 263

searchings. For your son is present with you
when he thinks of you, and you are with him when
you think of him, although no conscious message
pass between you. In the stillness of perfect
companionship, of simple presence, there is a re-
latedness of heart which no uttered or written
word could ever equal.

I say this with greater conviction after con-
tact with the dangers of the war-zone. I did not
know from actual experience that one could con-
tinue as open to guidance, that one could feel as
near spiritual realities. It seemed possible that
the environment of a war-zone would greatly in-
terfere, hence that the spiritual world might seem
more remote. Now I speak from experience
when I say that the spiritual world seems far
more near. For what is that world primarily?
Surely not a "place," as if environment were
more real than the beings whom it environs; but
rather a relationship or union, the bond between
souls. We know that our love-relationships
grow with interchange of tenderness, sympathy,
through mutual sentiments and community of in-
terests. Consider then how many the inter-
changes when thousands of souls have passed
what we call the border and are looking back,
and thousands here are yearning. Would not
that bring the spiritual world more near? Would
it not melt supposed barriers? And what kind

264 The Open Vision

* ■— —■ — * ' ' — ~— ii i

of interchange is more immediate than the one
you are now partly aware of when you turn in
loving, life-giving and joyful thought to your
son?

Do I personally believe in such nearness with
my own loved ones? Yes, because I cannot think
otherwise and be true to what life brings. I hold
that it is life itself which quickens these con-
victions in us, according to our several needs, in
the divine providence. Personally, we might
tend to think otherwise, we might even try to
disbelieve and disavow, because of the mis judg-
ments to which one is subject in the world. But
convincing beyond all question is that transfigur-
ing experience which makes death seem to us
forevermore a change into a greater sense of life,
bringing with it the belief that our friends in the
other world are not separated from us. For us
who are "left behind," as we say, there is a re-
alization that theory has given place to reality,
that now we know, now we have a sense of power
and with it new leadings for work in the world.
From this added sense of power one comes to
believe that there is greater wisdom in the mere
presence than there could be in pages and pages
of communications. For each of us must live
out his life as it is now proceeding. It would
not be wise to see things before our time. The
mere glimpses which some of us have had into

To a Mother 265

the other life are enough, are all that we are able
to bear now. We must first receive "the spirit
of truth" which will lead us gradually into all
truth, into all that we need to know.

There is a Comforter for you. There is every
reason why you should be at rest in this beauti-
ful thought of death as a transfiguring of the
soul, this thought which the soldiers have brought
us anew. The wonderful disclosure will be
made to you scene by scene, thought by thought,
if you will permit it to come in its own way.
Think of the spiritual world as most real in the
living present moment. Think of God as near,
and the Christian gospel of the fullness of life
as being realized now. Put no barriers of theory
or history between yourself and biblical times.
Read the Bible as true now. See in this growing
nearness of the spiritual world the second coming
of the Lord.

XVIII

THE FUTURE LIFE

At no time do we more keenly realize our ig-
norance and helplessness than in the hour when
friend is sundered from friend by the experience
which we call death. The questions that would be
most eagerly asked we cannot adequately answer.
The comfort we would most gladly give we can-
not bestow. Touched by the deepest sympathy,
we wish to be a friend indeed, giving spiritual
counsel, indicating the best attitude of heart and
mind, bestowing new life where help is most
needed. Prompted to express ourselves in some
way, we give voice to sentiments gathered here
and there, or appeal to personal experience, well
knowing that what is of value to us may convey
no meaning to another. With the same sense of
incompetency the public teacher approaches the
great theme, addressing himself in general to
people who ask for light in a very special way.
Here, as in the message of comfort sent to the
bereaved friend, the best that can be done is to
bring together various considerations that help

266

The Future Life 267

us a stage on our way, frankly admitting that we
are all learners together.

An important point is gained, however, when
we learn what questions may rightfully be asked,
in what directions we may reasonably look for
light. It is safe to assume that he knows most
about the future life who best understands our
present existence. Hence it is not necessarily
the one who has investigated mediumship or de-
voted years to psychical research who will be most
likely to guide us aright. The unknown must
be approached from the known or no sure head-
way can be made. If we have no philosophical
knowledge of human personality we should not
expect to learn anything of consequence about
the future life. Genuine self-knowledge should
enable us to make safe inferences, and the more
we know about moral laws the greater should be
our assurance with respect to the future.

There is of course no experimental or psychi-
cal proof of human immortality. We have
grown weary of arguments in favor of it. The
best of these is the insistence that a future life
is required in order to readjust the inequalities
and wrongs of mundane existence. It is widely
agreed that the moral cosmos must be eternal in
order to be moral at all. That the moral life
shall persist until all human needs are met and all
moral ideals fulfilled is an item of our faith,

268 The Open Vision

however, not a fact of our knowledge. To es-
tablish the survival of the soul after death, or the
fact of the spirit-return, would not be to prove
immortality, although such evidences would ren-
der our faith more secure. Our first interest is
to show that essentially the same man survives
the great change. If so, there may be good
ground for believing that the same individual
will always survive. To live forever would be
the only way conclusively to prove immortality,
and each of us shall know it for a fact through
actual life. The mere survival of states of con-
sciousness associated with our present existence
would not establish immortality, for these states
might be diffused after a few years, just as a
man's influence fades here on earth. Nor would
the persistence of the acquired deeds which make
up a man's present character, prove that the
soul's identity would survive, since there might
not then be a soul in the sense in which most of
us employ the term. What is sought is sure be-
lief in individual identity, with the conviction that
this self will outlive all changes in consciousness,
all phases of conduct and character, all develop-
ment from level to level. Many of us would like
to believe that as sons of God we possess an im-
mortal selfhood which will endure despite the
mutations of all possible modes of existence.
We do not wish to be "merged in the absolute,"

The Future Life 269

or have our friends diffused as atoms are scat-
tered. Nor do we like to believe that a man does
not become immortal until he chooses the eter-
nally moral life. If this be asking too much, at
any rate the main point is established, namely,
that it is ndt a question of mere proof.

If our arguments in behalf of the future life
are limited by our present faith, the same is true
of our statements concerning the actual mode of
existence of friends who have gone before. The
best information that purports to have come from
the most trustworthy psychical sources is meagre
indeed. In so far as our friends are able to
communicate they are most likely to convey brief
messages of helpfulness and love of special im-
port for you and me. Able to care for them-
selves more wisely than when here, they appear
to be most concerned to help us to live our na-
tural life. Those who are wisest would be least
likely to tell us what the actual conditions of their
experiences are. Hence it were well to be con-
tent with what is given us, manifesting no curi-
osity to behold heavenly glories before our time.
As great resources as the angels may have, what-
ever wisdom or power is bestowed upon us must
be mediated to us precisely where we are. We
could understand very little of their mode of life
if told. Far better is it that we should be given
the practical word for to-day. Those who look

270 The Open Vision

down upon us in their greater wisdom would
doubtless be glad to share this wisdom, but re-
frain because they know that like children we
must work everything out from the point of de-
velopment now attained.

It is probable that whatever guidance may be
our due is most likely to be received under con-
ditions that enable us to live a normal life in this
present world. Hence it is not likely to be those
who are seeking to acquire psychical powers who
will receive the greatest wisdom. The present
life necessarily stands first in importance for us
as long as we live here. He who takes an ab-
normal interest in the future life will be abnormal
in experience and thought. Hence when you
meet the typical "psychic" of to-day you will
naturally receive what she says with the greater
allowance for the personal equation in so far as
you find her approaching the abnormal. Occult
or unusual powers, extreme sensitivity, and a
neurotic temperament, may well be channels of
communication, but the test for those who would
know what statements to put reliance on is con-
formity to the conditions of natural existence.
Hence we insist that every one who claims to have
supernal wisdom shall show it by living more
sanely.

On the other hand, the man who goes quietly
about his affairs, with an inner door left open,

The Future Life 271

may well find that spiritual experiences are
added to natural without disturbing the condi-
tions of normal life. By this quietude one means
trustful expectancy based on knowledge of the
laws of moderate development, the absence of
ecstasy or of any emotion that upsets the or-
dinary processes of consciousness. The spirit-
ual life may then grow up almost "unconscious
and unbidden through the common," for a man's
life will be simple, free, and reposeful so that
whatever rightfully belongs to him will be vouch-
safed. Under such conditions it might be as
natural to feel the presence of angels and spirits
as to participate in any ordinary experience.
Such a life would be inspired by a purpose which
includes the natural world and the spiritual as
parts of the one moral order. Hence we may
dismiss the possibility that one who is thus in a
wise way interiorly open might be at times beset
by devils. Heaven is life with a purpose, and he
enters it at any point in any mode of existence
who attains order, its first law. Hell is con-
fusion, inconsistency, the scattering of power.
To enter heaven is to become open to all that is
uplifting and outgoing, closed to the subtle en-
ticements of self-will and self-centeredness.

While, then, there is strictly speaking no proof
of immortality, or even of the future life, there
is a wealth of reasons for believing that the soul

272 The Open Vision

survives all changes. Hence we may well under-
take to give the reasons for our faith, still relying
on the moral argument as the best one. The
moral order, one holds, guarantees that justice
shall be accorded to all and our moral purposes
completely realized. This need not mean that
those only who have a moral purpose become
immortal, for if the present life were the sole test-
ing-ground heaven might have a comparatively
small number of inhabitants. Let us rather say
that so far as we can tell moral possibilities are
endless and there are no temporal limits. The
probability is that in the future life every possi-
ble opportunity will be given every soul to arrive
at moral consciousness and become spiritually
constant. The best evidence we now have of
these possibilities is found in the fact that moral
consciousness already exists in the heavenly pres-
ent, while the men who refuse the gifts of the
Spirit are already in hell.

Considerations in favor of immortality are
more strongly persuasive than alleged scientific
proofs. The future life, let us say, as an act of
faith, includes every soul without exception that
has ever left this sphere. It is most likely to be
a realm or concourse of souls in which the in-
habitants gather into groups according to their
type. Hence a man may choose his company
as when here. More truly, the power of attrac-

The Future Life 273

tion is constantly gathering his like to him wher-
ever he is.

The most reasonable belief appears to be that
the spiritual world is as near as the atmosphere
itself, and related to our natural life by intelligi-
ble correspondences. An angel is not a being of
a totally different type, dwelling in a different
sort of world removed from ours. There is no
space between the worlds, that is, space should
not be thought of at all. What separates us
from an angel is the goodness which even now
separates us from enlightened men in the flesh
who are more advanced in development than we.
Heaven is constituted of the beings whose inmost
states accord with righteousness. Heaven be-
gins wherever and whenever a man acknowledges
the wisdom and love of God, responding in heart
and mind to that love and wisdom. Conse-
quently the heavenly ties that bind are already
uniting us one to another in this earthly sphere.
These are the ties that endure. These connect
us with the real spiritual world, a world as near
as the heart's most intimate friend, the mind's
profoundest thought.

Our first need is to dissociate the idea of death
from our thought of the soul. Death is an ex-
ternal or secondary incident, like a change of
residence or habitat, and is not intelligible by it-
self, or in terms of the conceptions with which

274 The Open Vision

conventional thought has invested it. The essen-
tial idea is that the inner life is continuous, that
we are already denizens of the eternal world.
Secure in our grasp of eternal possessions we can
begin to view temporal possessions aright. To
become thus secure it is necessary to think back
as far as we can, starting with the Being whose
life is forever the source of our experience.

That is to say, time and the other conditions
of finite selfhood as we know them begin with
the existence of this life-round through which
God manifests His selfhood. It is impossible
to start and end with time and space, with the
merely natural world, and arrive at an adequate
idea of God. Our starting-point should be with
the Being who is eternally His own ground, who
never began to be but eternally is, He who is self-
subsistent, independent, absolute. He is not a
creature of time or of any other limitation: He
makes time by displaying His activities in nat-
ural form. The temporal world is part of the
eternal divine order. The conditions found
within it are those that spring from the divine
purpose, the divine nature as revealed in it.

Likewise with the human soul, whatever we
find it to be under the guise of nature. Whether
you and I ever existed before our birth into this
natural world is an idle question in comparison
with the great thought that whatever we are es-

The Future Life 275

sentially, as sons of God, we are eternally in the
purposes of God. This is the ground of our
being, our selfhood, our very life. Secondary
to this is the fact that we went forth in the fulness
of time to gather experience, pass through the
long round from ignorance to knowledge, and
come gradually to consciousness of our spiritual
birthright. Secondary, too, is the fact that we
are given the great choice that enables us to be-
come sons of God in actuality, consciously immor-
tal in the spiritual realm of being. The differ-
ence is that the Father's will now becomes outs,
His purpose the consciously chosen purpose by
which we endeavor to make ourselves worthy of
immortality.

Temporal or earthly existence, I insist, is
secondary, whatever our belief in regard to the
so-called planes of experience. The fundamen-
tal consideration is this splendid gift which we
call life, ever carrying us forward to fresh mom-
ents of experience. We awaken to find our-
selves observant creatures meeting life as it
passes. With this reflective observation life re-
ally begins for us, whatever may have happened
before. Will this consciousness be continuous
so that we can look back upon this fair world and
own our life here as really ours? That will de-
pend upon the stage we have reached in thought
and life. In the case of some men this conscious-

276 The Open Vision

ness probably continues unbroken, so that death
is indeed an external incident. Ordinarily there
are such lapses as you and I already know from
painful endeavors to be righteous amidst condi-
tions that tempt us to be sinners. Only he is
sure, I repeat, who is morally a person, who can
command all moments of his fluctuating con-
sciousness; most of us are fragments, collections
of moods, tendencies, habits, feelings, with now
and then a moral impulse. If as fragments we
live, should we not expect to take up our next
occupation in a fragmentary manner? Shall
any one put a man together save a renewing
quickening spiritual life, inspired of course by
heavenly wisdom?

Life then is not a mere strait between eterni-
ties, as men once believed; the soul is not "hurled
into eternity," as the reporters for the sensational
press inform us. Whatever life we are to know
is inseparably involved in the life that now is.
There appears to be no escape for us, either into
another heaven or another hell. This tremen-
dous truth implies the conclusion that there is
nothing morally insignificant of which we can
now be deprived, nothing which need be post-
poned. For death is not the leveller of men, it
is not death that unmasks us, compelling us to
appear at last for what we are; it is moral judg-
ment that does all this. To him who has eyes

The Future Life 277

to see the inmost selfhood, these strange beings
round about in ungainly clothes, ugly hats, and
conventional disguises are already revealed for
the little that they are worth, as incisively re-
vealed as would be the case were they airy shapes
haunting the dim light of a ghostly world. The
disguises elude most of us, to be sure ; we address
these benighted creatures as if they were mere
beings of flesh, hats, automobiles, and bank-ac-
counts. But the moral cosmos is a fact now, and
each man is unsparingly, constantly judged by
what he is at heart, in secret thought and inmost
deed.

Without doubt, death is an unmasking — the
severest wielder of surprises that ever meets man-
kind. No doubt death is the only incident
powerful enough to awaken some of us into
decency. But consider how superficial it must
be to one who still turns a deaf ear to the angel of
the moral law, how long a time some men and
women of high repute must spend in a spiritual
kindergarten learning the first elements of moral
integrity. Then, too, there are probably those
who will long be dazed, half asleep, or even, more
unruly than when here. For them death will con-
ceivably mean extremely little; what will avail
will be the great moment when they cross the line
from disorder into order, morality. Possibly it
will be easier in the future lif e to make the effort

278 The Open Vision

and cast the die. More likely everything will
depend upon the man.

For those who already know themselves in
some degree, the future lif e will surely be richer,
freer, abounding in opportunities to make head-
way and to serve. But this will be because while
here they have already passed through a change
greater than death. Is this assuming too much,
do you say, are we making light of death? Then
look farther back and make sure that you start
with life — life, not death.

What is a soul? Are we really creatures of
flesh and blood, mere epiphenomena fitfully
added to life's fever, soon- to be reduced unto the
elements when our brains have ceased to func-
tion? If not, why not begin this hour to think
and speak consistently? Why refer to yonder
fleshly form "husbanded in death," as your sister,
your father, or your husband? Why maintain
this long round of conventionalities by which we
belie our faith and declare ourselves the weakest
of cowards?

If in actuality I believe my sister is a soul, let
me ever think of and love her as such, addressing
her as one worthy to be called a daughter of God,
sometime to be an angel in fact as she even now
is in ideal, mayhap in fleshly purity. To live by
what I profess were to meet her as a soul, even
if the world condemn her. One can never serve

The Future Life 279

two masters in these respects. When my sister's
erstwhile garment is laid aside, let me remember
that she lives as truly as when I saw that same
garment clothing her. If my faith tells me that
life is life, it will also tell me that her joy has
increased with her freedom. Why, then, should
I be so far selfish as to be bowed down in fleshly
grief as if my sister were dead? Should I not
live in joy with her joy, picturing her as she
probably is, awakening to fuller consciousness,
greeting me with increased affection? Surely,
the attitude of earthly grief and selfishness would
close the door, turning me hellward, not heaven-
ward, while to live with her as a soul, less apart
from me than before, would be to give her the
greatest satisfaction.

XIX

THE FUTURE LIFE
II

Can one live according to this high standard,
do you ask? Is it not human to grieve, should
we not conform to the customs of our land?
That depends upon our consciousness. Those
for whom this faith is a reality have met the sever-
est test and that is why they know it is true.
Once there came to a friend a woman who had
recently lost a son and who, finding no consola-
tion in the church, sought light elsewhere. My
friend bore no evidence that sorrow had come her
way, and she spoke as calmly and confidently
about death as most of us do about this natural
life. Emphasizing the thought of life, and point-
ing out that the mother would please her son
most by regarding him as a living soul enjoying
a richer mode of life, she tried to show the way
into a larger attitude. The mother listened
patiently for a time, then objected, "It is very
evident, Mrs. S., that you have never met with
sorrow." When my friend told this grieving
mother that it was less than three weeks since her
beloved husband had left this natural world, the

280

The Future Life 281

statement came with the force of a revelation that
changed the course of her life; for she saw that
here was a woman who, though separated from
the one whom she most deeply loved, was not
really separated at all, since a living faith wholly
took the place of the conventional thought of
death, together with all the attendant signs.
Here, in fact, was a woman for whom there was
but one life — the immortal lif e of spiritual con-
sciousness and love. What another had accom-
plished she might attain by equal fidelity and
love.

Consider the difference that would character-
ize our life here, if we could grow up with the
teaching that there is but one life— the moral
present. It would then be possible to regard all
the tribulations of human experience in the light
of their value for the soul, to live consistently in
and with the thought of life as essentially spirit-
ual, dependent at each and every stage upon the
life-giving Father. A different scale of values
would obtain from first to last. Deeper know-
ledge of this existence would prepare the way
for a higher entrance into the future. In place
of the fear of death — that terrible disturber of
our rest throughout our conventional existence,
there would be joy in life — gratitude for the
blessings of growth and companionship. Best
of all, without the torments of fear, and with a

282 The Open Vision

normal mode of life in general, there would be
a strong possibility that death would come in the
fulness of time, not as a result of the strenuous
existence which takes most of us away before
our time. For why should not death sometime
be an easy, natural transition, when we have out-
grown all correspondences here?

This line of reasoning brings us to the point
where we can take up the question most eagerly
asked about our loved ones: Shall we know
them, will they know us in the future life? Our
argument leads us to ask the prior question, Do
we really know our friends here? What is it to
know a soul? Almost without thought we an-
swer that we are bound to our loved ones by inner
cords, ties of feeling, unity of spirit, common in-
terests, affections that are not dependent on ex-
ternal relationships, although fostered by the
clasp of the hand and the many little acts of
tenderness which the heart prompts. We really
know, not when we have minutely analyzed, but
when we have lived with a person, "through thick
and thin," through mutual struggles and deep-
ening joys. Is it not safe to infer that we are
most likely to be drawn to those whom we have
thus most intimately known in this world? Are
we not likely to be most remote from those who
are at the great distance from us here?

Many indeed who go on before us may out-

The Future Life 283

grow their relationships with people in the flesh
and may not be recognized by any whom they
knew here. But these changing relationships
are occurring all about us now. Most of our ac-
quaintances are for a time only. Many ties of
blood are external simply. A man's real rela-
tionships are with those who are near him in type,
just as in a church one finds men and women of
a certain sort of faith, constituting a spiritual
group. Such groups need not be alone consti-
tuted of those in the flesh, or out of it, but may in-
clude all souls, whether incarnate or discarnate,
who think and live in the same general way.
Very likely we all belong to such groups, large
or small. If so, we are likely to know and to be
known by those who are quickened in the same
degree.

Likewise with love. Few men and women
love as you and I would like to have them, with
that deep interior bond that ever draws two souls
more closely together. When it is the soul's love,
not the fleshly affection, may we not reasonably
expect that this bond will draw the two into
deeper union even when one has left the flesh and
must await the other during many a year?
Surely this is a reasonable belief. It is allow-
able, also, to hold that even during a visible sep-
aration lasting ten, even twenty or thirty years,
the two will grow in unison, knowing each other

284 The Open Vision

better all the while, ready for quick recognition
when the lingerer shall be free. And recogni-
tion, let us remember, is not of the eye but of the
heart, the soul.

Here then are joy and hope for us at the point
where we are most eager. But how it changes
matters even in this present life! How differ-
ent from the beginning to eternity is that love
which is of the inmost heart, uniting soul with
soul, inspiring each to live for the other, in con-
trast with the zeal for power and possession
which ordinarily rules in what we call love!
First in order in all fields of interest stands that
which has eternal value, pertains to character
and the moral ideal. Every man is to be judged,
to be worked for, in accordance with what he
really is at heart, that is, his best self, the soul
that is struggling into expression. The life in
and for the Spirit is the one life worth while.
Other ends are to be sought only so far as they
pertain to this greatest end. Our work for
humanity is thus made constructive in a far
larger sense than is ordinarily thought of, with
the longest look ahead. Yet all this change shall
come about, not with the acceptance of more re-
sponsibility on our part as if we poor finite creat-
ures could peer into the most distant future to
discern what is best for a man, but with the giv-
ing up of all merely human responsibility in

The Future Life 285

favor of unqualified cooperation with the moral
law, complete obedience to the guidances of the
Spirit.

The old notion that we are suddenly to be
transported into heaven or hell went with the
primitive conception of God as a local being a
few hundred miles above the earth, then supposed
to be the centre of the universe. It was pleas-
ant, no doubt, to sing about the delectable region
in which there should be "no more sorrow."
More serious was the proposition that there
should be no more time, for this appeared to offer
a real way for escape from the slow processes of
this earth. All this changed with the discovery
that whatever occurs in the cosmos takes place
by degrees. Hence even in a timeless world no
one would be free from the conditions which
make for righteousness. Time is long or short
according to the love we bear for what we are
doing. Sorrow will cease when we are wise
enough and loving enough to merit a life of
blessedness. We are lifted out of the domain
of time in so far as we love and give ourselves to
the eternal values, to truth, beauty, and goodness.
An eternal type of consciousness may be added
to this transiency which ordinarily imprisons us.
It may be attained by every one who will give
up enough local interests to take on those that
pertain to the cosmos.

286 The Open Vision

The old conception of virtue has also gone,
since we discovered that our earth is not the
centre of all things. No one would seriously
think of purchasing a seat in heaven who has
learned that merely to give away all one's money,
or to accept a creed which is supposed to guar-
antee salvation, signifies little. We are learn-
ing that merely external things decide nothing
whatever, that all depends on the motive, the
character, the actual attainment. In other
words, those who are really serious understand
that virtue begins when moral judgment begins.
He who does a virtuous deed is rewarded accord-
ing to its inmost character by a power which no
hand can stay. No one need purchase what he
has earned.

If, then, you would "inherit eternal life," be-
gin to be worthy to be known by your friends in
the future by living for the moral values and
spiritual essentials of life. By these I mean the
actual attainments, the heart-interests, and in-
most states which draw us into conditions of real
life development. We begin to know these
when we judge righteously, and a righteous
judgment is not so difficult as might appear.
At heart we would all like to pass for what we
are, be frank, open, honest, making no claims, in
gentle deference and kindness preferring that our
betters should take the lead; what makes us such

The Future Life 287

difficult and unpleasant creatures is what is ex-
ternal, conventional, worldly. Begin to pass for
what you are and people will bestow confidence
upon you, honestly speaking from the heart.
Give from the inmost centre and your fellows
will respond from that centre.

There is indeed an inmost part of us all, a
centre where the love of God abides, ever sus-
taining the capacity for goodness in us, however
strong the life that seems to gainsay its very ex-
istence. This, I insist, is the primary consider-
ation. If you do not know it yet, if you have not
found it in yourself or in others, study to find it,
simplify your life sufficiently, seek quietude
enough. In the stillness of nature, in the silence
of the night, in the calmer moments between
the storms and stresses, meditate on the perman-
ent life of the soul. Remember the loved form
whose presence within your household bespoke
a soul of sweetness and purity, or of manly
dignity and power. Consider how free must
the loved one's life be in contrast with the com-
plexity of your own. In order to establish a
conscious bond between that life and yours you
would naturally cultivate a spirit of restfulness
and genuine repose. You would scarcely think
of this inner quietude as your own, as sought for
yourself. Really to find the inmost centre is to
find that a higher life than you can claim as your

288 The Open Vision

mere own steadily springs into fresh moments
of being within you. That life springs out of
the abundance of the divine heart. It carries
the soul forward from moment to moment.
What it does for you, what it would have you
do — this is essential, moral, spiritual. He who
apprehends and knows it, thinks not of his own,
makes nothing of himself; but responds, obeys,
shares, loves, gives unqualifiedly.

In some of us a work of destruction must be
wrought before we can find this inmost centre,
for we have made too much of the self, we care
for the form more than the spirit, revere the
head above the heart. Hard is the work of de-
struction, sometimes, for we have paid high for
external accomplishments and we want them
recognized for all that they are worth. But the
process continues, nevertheless ; the Spirit is try-
ing us all in the light of the inmost standard.
To enter the real life that now is, to be aware of
this essential process, is already to dwell in and
to know the future life, to have no more doubts
concerning its existence. For we know that the
self-same Spirit that is remaking us now made
the total environment in which we live, possesses
all things and is unopposed. God is the one
efficiency, there is no other. The real life is life
with Him. He is life and in Him is no death.
"He is light and in Him is no darkness at all."

The Future Life 289

He is love, and His love knows no hatred for
souls, condemns no son or daughter. He who
would know life and have it more abundantly
may indeed have and know it who opens himself
in spirit to be guided.

The future life is the life of the spirit, and the
spirit in man is the group of powers through
which God quickens him, through which heavenly
presences are perceived, by means of which he
responds in thought, will, and deed. The spirit
was not conceived by the flesh but was born of
Spirit. Nor is it solely conditioned by the brain
and nervous system. It is immersed in the flesh,
while we dwell here, but already its powers are
recipients of the divine life, capable of acknow-
ledging and responding to the divine love and
wisdom. The spirit is not a mere faculty or
sense, it is not quickened by feeling alone, or
limited to mystical experiences; it is the man
himself in permanent form, in heavenly possi-
bility, if not already in heavenly guise. To have
a definite conception of it, instead of holding a
hazy psychology, is already to be able to reflect
concerning the future life in a rational way.
There is no reason why we should not construct
a fairly precise conception if we keep close to the
actual intimations of the spirit's presence which
our best experiences supply, and which our high-
est insights complete.

290 The Open Vision

It seems to be granted to but few to behold
the future life as it were in vision while we yet
dwell here. For those who believe they have
communed with spirits and angels the actual
experience of enlightened and heavenly presences
outweighs in authority even the knowledge of
the moral order on which I have placed such
stress. For it is experience that convinces,
rather than argument or even knowledge, and
sometimes a person's whole life will be changed
by the coming of a quickening presence or
through the persuasiveness of an inner vision.
It is those who have been touched and quickened
who really know, while other people merely have
grounds for faith and are still able to doubt on
occasion.

It is not strange that such experiences are sel-
dom vouchsafed to men, for most of us are ab-
sorbed in external life, most of us care solely for
the things that perish. This is probably wise,
for it is well that we should advance little by
little, while a few lead the way. No one who
eagerly seeks light on the great question will
ever be deprived of light, but if the foregoing
considerations are sound much will depend on
what we seek and the way we seek it. Not in
anxiety and scepticism are we likely to be given
genuine evidence. There is a vast difference be-
tween the occult realm to which scepticism right-

The Future Life 291

fully applies and the inner realm of spiritual
quickening, the sanctuary of the spirit. The
conclusive evidences are gifts of heaven. They
do not conform to our standards and are not con-
trolled by our will. The best is not bestowed
while we insist that it shall be given in precisely
our own way.

Not then in mere faith but in conviction
founded on actual experience some of us hold
that we actually gaze into the future life, dis-
cerning heavenly forms and faces clothed with
radiance and expressing love beyond all powers
of appreciation in ordinary speech. From these
visions it appears plain that the life of the en-
lightened future will not be one in which men
simply mete out justice, administering moral les-
sons to their fellows, but a life in which love will
prevail, a love which will not only pertain to a
small segment of the human self but will fill the
entire sphere. Conceive a being filled with love,
literally from head to foot, as if emitting a soft
effulgence spreading far beyond the bodily form,
and you will perhaps have some idea what man-
ner of being sometimes attends our footsteps on
their faltering way. If we could see more, if we
could really behold the manner of life which the
angels lead, doubtless we should be eager to press
on and join them in the sacred beauty of their
existence. But it seems wise that our eyes are

292 The Open Vision

holden that we may not see, since each must take
up the round of activities where he dropped it
when the vision came. Nothing seems to absolve
us from being practical.

We have succeeded in this brief survey of the
great subject, if we have pointed out various di-
rections in which the wise spirituality of the fu-
ture may grow little by little out of the philo-
sophical life of the present. Reason dissolves
circumstances into laws and into eternity. He
who leads the life of reason will not be greatly
surprised even by death. For the same law that
founded death creates itself in forms of mastery
in the philosophic reflection of man. He who is
able to rethink life so as to add the gifts which
his individuality produces has the groundwork
on which the future shall be reared. It is not
strange, then, that we occasionally foresee our
own future some years ahead. That future is
being formed through us even now; we possess
in essence what we are to be. Translate this life
of eternal creative reason into the society of the
republic of God, you who care rather for the
personal than for the laws and values, and you
will already have prefigured before you the group
to which you belong. Only when we thus break
away from the mere things, mere temporal
events, and branch out into the free atmosphere
of the ideal, can we complete the picture. We

The Future Life 293

are partly making the future in which we shall
dwell, by this ideal construction in which persons
are beheld as each contributing his organic por-
tion in a spiritual republic. To be, not merely to
seem, to have real abiding peace, a love that stays,
a reason that we live by, fellow-souls with whom
we labor throughout the centuries — that it is to
belong to a future that is worth while, to realize
"the glory of the imperfect" for the sake of the
greater glory of God.

CHAPTER XX

THE BOOK OF LIFE

No fact more plainly shows that human beliefs
depend on human attitudes than the remarkable
diversity of opinion concerning the Bible. In
this Book of books man may find whatever he
looks for, what he thinks, what he is. In fact
man may confirm from it whatever he wishes to
believe, and apparently prove whatever is to him
a truth. Any kind of spiritual theory may be
founded upon it and it may serve to establish any
sort of authority. Whenever a new cult arises
or an ancient belief is revived the Master is
claimed as the initiate or prophet of the new
order of society presently to come into being. To
understand what the Bible means to the masses
you must know not only the great faiths of the
world but the lesser ones too; you must know
human nature and all the incentives that lead
men to look beyond visible things in quest of
God, if "haply by feeling after Him they may
find Him."

Meanwhile in the endless confusion of creeds
and interpretations there seems to be but one
way to advance to clearly established science,

294 "

The Book of Life 295

namely, by adopting the higher criticism. This
point of view means, in brief, that the same prin-
ciples of interpretation shall be applied to the
Bible which we employ when studying the works
of a classic author such as Homer. Every well-
informed person knows by this time that the
great Greek poet brought together traditions
and myths concerning the gods or heroes.
Homer lived in a certain age, was subject to cer-
tain conditions and beliefs, and spoke a certain
language. No one would think of studying his
verse apart from these conditions. He was "in-
spired," if you please, but inspiration is a cer-
tain activity of the man of genius; inspiration
does not produce its works apart from human
instruments and limitations, nor does it involve
any guarantee against errors and mistakes.
When it produces poetry its effusions are re-
garded as poetry, not as science.

In the same way, so the critics tell us, the
myths of the ancient Hebrews, together with
their moral code, came in time to be put in writ-
ten form. For the sake of authority these writ-
ings were attributed to Moses as law-giver, and
to the prophets and other writers who put long-
standing beliefs in classic form. The Bible is
simply a collection of short literary works, not
a unitary book. It was brought into its pres-
ent shape long after the events and sayings

296 The Open Vision

which it records became historical facts. It
abounds in myths and errors, popular beliefs,
and contradictions. There are various copies of
the original manuscripts, and these do not always
agree. As a whole, it should be read in the light
of the conditions under which it was produced.
To know how the world was made, you should
consult modern science, not the Bible. To know
history, you should turn to its chief authorities.
To know what to believe, you should look for
light wherever you can find wisdom that appeals
to you. There can be no standard of belief in
a collection of myths, hymns, and prophecies
gathered from the literature of a people. That
is to say, the Bible is essentially human, and
should be read as all other books are interpreted.
In the face of this well-established view any
one who should still claim that the Bible con-
tains a "revelation" would be looked on as be-
hind the times. It is possible, however, to as-
similate the results of the higher criticism and yet
find in the Bible an illumined clue to the spirit-
ual life. For example, we may frankly recog-
nize that the commandments did not originate
on Mount Sinai but were widely believed by
other nations, and that Moses copied from other
writings earlier than those now attributed to him.
Indeed it matters little whether there ever was
such an event as that associated with Mount

The Book of Life 297

in i i *

Sinai; what does matter is that the myths which
the Hebrews preserved came to have divine au-
thority, in contrast with the civil authority which
they had long enjoyed. The ancient Hebrews
represented types of development in such a way
that principles are discernible despite all the
errors and imperfections, the crudities and ex-
ternalities for which they are known. There are
indeed verbal contradictions and appearances
that readily mislead. The true God is very far
from the angry, jealous deity, narrowly partisan
and exclusive, in whom the Hebrews believed.
Unless the Bible had been produced amidst the
imperfections of human nature and the limita-
tions of human language, unless it had been true
to the wanderings and failures of the Israelites,
it could not have been written. But never can
even the world's most learned critics discern the
harmonious inner meaning of the Scriptures by
mere study of texts, languages or historical con-
ditions.

How then shall we discern the inner meaning?
What is the spiritual value of the Bible to-day?
Can you and I read it so that it shall not merely
uplift the soul in the "beauty of holiness,', as
when we read the Psalms, but also give us sys-
tematic spiritual understanding, verifiable by hu-
man experience and reason? The answer to
these questions is found by considering once more

298 The Open Vision

what the Word was, which "in the beginning was
with God and was God." We are taken at once
into the realm of the universal, guided by the idea
of God as the All-Father who so established hu-
man existence that however great the darkness
there should shine within it some measure of the
light which "illumines every man born into the
world." If the Word had not been universal
this could not have been the case. If man had not
been so constituted as to possess power to com-
prehend the light, this could not have been true.
Over and above all visible signs or symbols,
earlier and more comprehensive than any book,
there must have been the eternal Word written
in the heavenly cosmos of the human heart. Be-
cause this spiritual Word is universal, it may be
read at any time or any place, by him who has the
eyes. Because it is universal the clue to it is
within every race or nation. This Word would
exist were there no visible books. Men need
visible books and other aids to thought and wor-
ship, that they may grow into discernment of
the Word that is written in the spiritual ex-
perience of the race.

The universal Word contains an essence, that
is to say, divine love and truth, in entire purity;
and it has a function, namely, to open the spirit-
ual world, to conjoin men with heaven, to make
known the pathway of the soul. It is also

The Book of Life 299

adapted to the nature and needs of men, and can
be expressed in the language which men know.
Historically speaking, it is much more extensive
and earlier in form than the volume we call the
Bible, and in another sense it is smaller
since our Scriptures contain writings of
secondary value, in contrast with those es-
pecially adapted to the inner meaning. Doubt-
less the ancient Asiatics possessed parts of
this universal Word in written form. We
should always be cautious in making statements
concerning the historical extent of the Scriptures.
What we may declare with confidence is that
there is a spiritual condition on man's part which
makes it possible either to discern the universal
Word or to write and interpret any part. For
the Word indicates not merely the manner in
which divine wisdom leads the race along the
spiritual pathway, but also the stages of human
response, and the darkness or tribulation through
which the nations pass. Moreover, there really
is a difference between the universal Word and
many books in which man undertakes to inter-
pret life for himself. Men have found in the
visible Bible whatever they believed because,
even in the text, with its record of the wander-
ings and failures of men, it is the book of the
totality of human life, adapted to the simple as
well as to the wise in all ages. What men have

300 The Open Vision

lacked is the spiritual science which shall make
known the inner meaning. This science can be
acquired only through spiritual ability to discern
the universal Word, an interior openness,
quickened by the same Wisdom that produced
the Word. This enlightenment is as possible to-
day as at any time in the past. The universality
of the Word may be verified by one who lifts his
spirit into that light. For the Bible is an ex-
position of the principles by which we live and
move and have our being in God. It contains
the same law which is "written in all our mem-
bers." But we must approach in a certain
spirit, in willingness to be enlightened, putting
aside preconceptions involving external judg-
ments. This means putting aside, for the time
being, the point of view of the higher criticism.
For we need a clue to the correspondence be-
tween all things visible and their spiritual coun-
ter-parts and meanings. Given this insight in
some slight degree, the Bible becomes like an
open book, instinct with life and meaning for to-
day.

We need not look far for clues to this univer-
sal meaning. The Gospels state in the plainest
language that the Master employed simple illu-
sions drawn from the world around and uttered
parables containing an inner meaning not to be
taken simply as it reads. We also read about

The Book of Life 301

— — — — — ■ — ' i— — — — — — - — — — *

the letter that "kills" and the words that "are
spirit and are life." The kingdom of heaven is
symbolized by visible things said to be "like unto
it." Although every utterance is simple and di-
rect, it must be put in signs and symbols, and
there is no excuse for reading mere words with-
out their spiritual meaning.

As the gospel history draws to its close, the
Master "opens" the Scriptures to those capable
of discernment, indicates a definite clue to the
Bible as a whole by singling out the "law and
the prophets," and by unfolding those Scriptures
which pertain to the truth which was "from the
beginning." Turning to the Old Testament
with these clues, we may learn that, in a distinc-
tive sense, its central books are written with ref-
erence to the relation between nature and spirit-
ual things; hence we may infer that the inner
meaning may be found in all parts of the Bible.
Surely, since it is a law which we may all verify
that "no man can serve two masters," it is equally
plain that one must choose between fidelity to the
letter and fidelity to the spirit. Given the spirit,
we may in time come to see why it clothes itself
in all the signs and symbols, appearances and
limitations, of the letter, which men have found
so baffling. The truth is there in the letter, as
indeed God's word is written in the whole visible
universe about us, in our hearts and in everything

302 The Open Vision

we do, think, or will; but what is needed is the
eye to see it.

We may illustrate by the signs employed in
musical compositions. No one mistakes these
signs for music. They involve a plan or orderly
arrangement such that, given the training, you
may go to the piano or other instrument and pro-
duce sounds like those indicated in a certain
order by the composer. The test of the value in
these signs is found in the use to which you put
them; what you produce is part of the "music
of the spheres." The keener your grasp of the
principles, the more highly developed your mu-
sical ability, the less need you have for symbols.
You will be able to catch a theme, carry it in your
mind, and work it out. You apprehend, as it
were, the eternal essence of music, and when
listening to great music you are sometimes lifted
above mere space and time.

Consider now what would happen if in read-
ing the Scriptures we should endeavor to put
ourselves into a certain interior state, symbolized
by the figures of speech used in the Psalms. To
make any headway, as in music, we should need
not only to think the subject out, but, as it per-
tains to life, to live it out. We would then turn
from the symbol to the reality likened to it, and
consider the conditions necessary to discern the
reality. Thus we would come to realize with a

The Book of Life 303

conviction that would take deep hold of us, that
each man must test these spiritual principles for
himself. The Bible, as thus approached, would
prove to be the Book of Life.

If we shall regard the Bible as the book of life,
we must start with the idea of Life to read it
aright. All life is from a single source, it flows
forth into man to quicken his affections through
love and to enlighten his understanding through
truth. Life thus spurs man forward in the ac-
tivities of his daily experience, it teaches him
from within and from without, it is thus stirring
in every one of us to-day. Thus stirred, we all
pass through certain periods of development as
youth follows childhood, and as we pass on to
maturity of thought and feeling. In a certain
age we are external, like the children of Israel.
We produce idols, and need to have them de-
stroyed. We need commandments in forms of
external authority, the visible pillar of cloud, the
guidance for each day, the given task with its
tangible reward. Then we are led by the same
wisdom into a more interior state represented by
conditions to which the sermon on the mount ap-
plies.

Looking back with the enlightenment now
ours, we realize that even in the visible tabernacle
on which we so greatly depended, there was a
"most holy place" which stood for the inner king-

304 The Open Vision

dom; but we could not then discern its real
meaning. Looking back, we see that we have
been wisely led every step of the way and as
rapidly as we could proceed.; What was once a
mystery now becomes a law. What was
formerly an external sign and symbol is now
seen as a thin disguise for inward reality. The
whole process of life from simple to complex,
from the external to the internal, was one; but
we could not know this until we had come into
possession of the knowledge that all spiritual
growth is from within outward. Now that we
are in the process of spiritual reconstruction, we
are able to see that the Bible is especially the
book which tells of that quickening Life which
saves us from our ignorance and self-love.

The second coming of the Lord, of which the
Bible tells us in language that long utterly mys-
tified its readers, may confidently be said to be
precisely this revelation of the inner meaning
concealed within the letter. The Bible in the
letter is indeed full of difficulties and conflicts, is
ambiguous. Hence the problems raised by the
higher criticism. Only when viewed in the
spiritual light do these difficulties and problems
disappear. There is still need for doctrine, but
it must be the doctrine which like a "lamp to
make genuine truths visible" gives the human
spirit the same clue in the study of the text that

The Book of Life 305

is found in the interpretation of experience at
large.

Granted the spiritual principle of interpreta-
tion, we may consider difficulties such as the prob-
lem of non-resistance and find a direct clue.
For the gospel teaching applies to the realm of
motives, the source of higher resistances; leav-
ing the matter of external adaptation to the in-
dividual Christian. Thus the giving of the cloak
also, or the turning of the other cheek, is only a
symbol. Following out the principle of inner
interpretation, we find the whole gospel disclos-
ing a unity never noted before. The inconsis-
tencies and ambiguities are affairs of the letter.
There would never be an end to these if we
should stop with the letter, or confine our in-
terpretation to results attained by the higher
criticism. The latter is true in its place. It has
in part come to stay. But its true value cannot
be discerned save in the light of the inner inter-
pretation.

Given the inner clue, we also see what is to
be the pathway of return for those who have lost
faith in the Bible There can be no return to the
old literalism. The way back will be through
belief that the Bible is the Word despite the limi-
tations and difficulties of the text. In this sense
the Bible differs in no way from life itself. Any
literal study involves difficulties. Life as a whole

306 The Open Vision

is like a perplexing text if regarded item by item
from the outside. There is no end while this is
our point of view. But then this can never be
the true point of view. The spiritual vision
alone affords the interpretative principle. Life
is for experience, is for faith. Its value is seen
in the fruitions of the soul's inner history. The
Bible is true just because it is true to life, because
it describes the pathway of the soul, with its vi-
cissitudes, temptations, mysteries, struggles, and
successes. What is needed is ability to apply it
as a living book to the events of to-day, finding
in them the same laws, the same tendencies, and
withal the same clue to spiritual freedom.

Thus regarded the Bible is far more than a
guide to salvation. It is indeed a book about sin
and the regeneration and all the rest to which
theology calls our attention. But it is also a
guide to the constructive study of the human
spirit. It is essentially a social book, unfolding
the long life-evolution of man from his earliest
lapses to the point where the Master comes to
reveal the true ideal of brotherhood and service.
If it has meant a thousand things to as many
interpreters, it should far more truly mean one
great thing to us to-day through its teaching
that we are "members one of another."

We need not trouble over the difficulties raised
by those who use as their chief instrument the

The Book of Life 307,

» ii

biblical criticism "made in Germany." That
criticism has been as subtle, as misleading, as
mischief-making as the sly propagandism which
we once gave place to in our country, even wel-
coming high-class German spies as exchange pro-
fessors in our universities. Like the war con-
ducted by the Huns in Belgium and northern
France, it has everywhere left ruins behind. Its
subtle influences have undermined the faith even
of innocent teachers who did not know the first
thing about German thought but were guided by
the authority of others. It has brought some of
our ministers to a point where, following external
clues, they have tried to piece together the frag-
ments of the Gospels which the destructive work
has left and to reconstitute Christ as it were from
the outside. It has rejected John, the greatest
of Gospels. It has arbitrarily ruled out many
of the events recorded in the Gospels. It has
presumed to say precisely what words Jesus
could have uttered, and what words the Master
could not have spoken — in accordance with the
conception of the Master imposed on the Gospels
by this criticism. In short, it has become as dog-
matic as the old theology against which the dev-
otees of modern liberalism have protested.

In order completely to undermine this criti-
cism, it would be necessary to look as far back
as Martin Luther's time. For the Protestant

308 The Open Vision

Reformation, despite all its liberalizing in-
fluences, was in some respects a self-assertive re-
action in favor of the faith of the individual who
arrogates too much power to himself. Some of
the great values of Christian teaching were ob-
scured by this self-assertion. Other truths were
wholly lost to view. Kantian philosophical criti-
cism added its subjective tendencies to those of
the Reformation. In bondage as we have been
to German intellectualism, we have borrowed any
number of critical tendencies. Instead of seek-
ing the inner meaning of the Gospels, we have
developed theologies out of the Pauline Epistles.
We have then read our chosen system of ideas
into the Gospels. Hence Protestantism has
more and more divided into sects. It is not
strange that under the conditions faith was dif-
ficult.

But how different is the result when we seek
the principles which disclose the living Lord!
We may then read the Bible to seek light on the
divine providence, for instance, in war-time.
That is to say, the Bible is profoundly and very
truly a book about the inner warfare of the soul
as the clue to man's outer warfare. The his-
torical events of the earlier books are relatively
incidental. What signifies is the inner history
culminating in the coming of the Messiah.

The original Christianity of the Master of life

The Book of Life 309

and death is so much greater, truer than the
Christianity of most of the churches, that we
would lead men to that. The simple, direct
teachings of the Gospels are so much greater,
truer than all the theologies founded on the
Pauline Epistles, that we would lead men back
to the Gospels. The true message of comfort
for those whose loved ones have left their sight
is indeed in the Bible. But the Bible has been to
a considerable extent neglected, that is, in so far
as it addresses itself to the whole man, in its
teaching concerning the nearness of the spiritual
world, the reality of angelic presences, and in
other noteworthy respects. We have put our
creeds above the Bible. We have read the inter-
pretations of our creed into the text. We have
judged by the letter. Meanwhile, the Word it-
self reminds us with eloquent emphasis that
"The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life."

The test will then be our ability to read in
these words a life-carrying message for to-day,
the day of new social issues, issues which seem
to have no solution until at last we find the di-
vine clue. Thus to read will be to look more
deeply into the tendencies of the day in quest of
the spirit in them, the divine purpose; always
making allowances for the changed conditions
since the days of the coming of Christ on earth.

310 The Open Vision

Thus to read is to realize that the light shines
afresh which lightens every man that is born into
the world. This light is the power of the eternal
Word which "was in the beginning." All things
were made according to that light. All things
were made by Him who was and is its source.
The light, the source, and the truth are insepa-
rable.

CHAPTER XXI

THE INWARD LIGHT

Probably every one who is trying to live the
Christian life has a rule which simplifies the
spiritual ideal to a single practical principle. The
system of the Christian life as a whole is essen-
tial. So is each of its parts. The thought of the
infinite has its rightful place. The universe is
vast and complex, and a great system of thought
is needed to represent its wisdom and beauty.
Life too is complex, and there are appropriate
times for dwelling on its magnitude. Yet that
which is most complex may become for us the
most genuinely simple, if we concentrate upon a
rule of life which applies to each situation upon
the daily highway.

Such a rule is found in the principle of the in-
ward light, "the light of Christ in the soul," as the
Friends call it. This principle stands for the
living presence of God today, "the voice of God
in the soul of man;" for the nearness of the spirit-
ual world and the guidances coming therefrom.
It expresses the universality of the Holy Spirit
or Comforter. It is not advocated in contrast
with the Bible as a record of what men did and

311

312 The Open Vision

believed in the far past when they were guided
by the divine providence, but it makes the inner
meaning of the Bible a living Word, a witness to
the truth that there is an eternal Word, universal
and invisible, not limited by time or place or by
language. He who endeavors to live by the in-
ward light today, each hour and moment, should
be able to confirm from actual experience the
teachings of the Word as the universal clue to
the spiritual life.

If we look back to ancient Israel, in the
journey toward the promised land, we realize
how long must have been the progress of man
till he came to the period of the inward light as
an emphatically inner experience requiring no
outward sign or symbol. The sons of Israel
were so far external that they required such a
symbol as the manna, said to have fallen in abun-
dance for each day, and for that day only, as
a sign of the divine providence. The pillar of
cloud was said to move forward when the Israel-
ites should fold their tents and depart. It stood
still when they ought to encamp. Obedience to
these changing signs was typical of inner obedi-
ence. Then there was the tabernacle with its
"holy place," to be entered on the proper occa-
sions by those dedicated to this purpose. Within
the tabernacle were the commandments in visible
form as guides for daily conduct in civil and

The Inward Light 313

spiritual affairs, for a people still dependent on
prohibitions in such forms. Finally, there were
times of unusual need when Moses was given the
guidance for the hour, the guidance which came
only in case he "stood still," and asked what God
would have him say and do as leader.

The dawn of the Christian era witnessed
changed conditions. The Hebrews were still ex-
ternal, so far indeed from knowledge of the true
light that they failed to recognize the Messiah
in the flesh before them. Yet the conditions
were such that in the sermon on the mount the
same law enunciated for the Israelites of Moses's
time was restated for those able to discern the
wisdom of the inner life. The most holy place of
the external tabernacle now became "the secret
place" of the heart into which every one might
enter, where any one could commune with the
Father who should close the door upon the outer
world. Instead of the priest whose function was
to seek divine wisdom apart from the people and
in their behalf, we now have a universal prayer
for daily help and daily bread as the guide to
man's social life. We also have a sharp contrast
between merely external worship, fasting, and
prayer; and the true receptivity which is of the
heart. There is no visible manna or cloud, or
any similar sign or symbol. In place of symbols
to hold the mind upon the commandments, we

314 The Open Vision

have emphasis on brotherly love and the one
great principle that, whatever the occasion, what
we need is provided by the Father.

There is a central law which governs the entire
sphere of the divine providence as thus incul-
cated: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you." Here in brief we have the entire
plan of heavenly things. The more clearly we
understand this central principle, the more wisely
we may seek the inward light. For the principle
implies the entire system, the complete Word of
God. It also involves a certain conception of
man's spiritual nature as recipient of the inward
light.

This law means that all spiritual progress is
from within outward, for the kingdom which we
are bidden to seek pertains to the inner life. All
the promptings that send men forth to service
are from this source. So is all the goodness, life,
love, which gives power to such service. Not-
only is the original impetus from within, but so
is each guidance along the way, all that is sup-
plied by way of assistance to the central impetus.
There is an impelling current or outflow from the
secret place into the first stages of the soul's
accomplishments, and continuing — if man is
faithful, to the final stage. He who shall keep
in touch with that impetus from first to last will

The Inward Light 315

— — — *— P— ■ MM — — — — 1 L II— I ——l II IUL ■■^■■■1 —■■»!! ■■■!■■ ■ ■■■■■ ■■■■«—*— WW— ——■

find that every detail is provided for, so that the
divine gift shall be coincident with the need and
adequate to meet it. There will often be dis-
cernible to the eye of one who follows the course
of events with thought fulness and exact corre-
spondence in time and place, between need and
supply. It is the impelling activity from within
which achieves the desired end. External con-
ditions are essential and these should be favor-
able, but they are not causes. It is imperative
that we hold the inner point of view, the vision
of the kingdom as fulfilling the divine purpose.
Otherwise we may misinterpret some of our ex-
periences as if the correspondence were due to
chance.

Again, there is a certain condition to be ful-
filled. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness." What is the righteousness of
the kingdom? The entire sermon on the mount
is the answer. Here we have in detail a state-
ment of the ancient "law and the prophets."
From time to time one needs to take up portions
of the great sermon to make sure that one is fol-
lowing the law in its interior form, not as a
merely external code. One should make sure
that one is living by this law in detail as a living
inner principle. Everything depends upon the
motive and attitude, even the passing desire and
thought. It no longer suffices to keep the law

316 The Open Vision

in external deeds simply. Even to lust "in
thought" is to sin. Nor may one be true to the
law of righteousness by becoming so absorbed in
the interior kingdom that one's light is hidden
there in mere receptivity. We must give in
order to receive. There must be efflux or ex-
pression, if we would have the heavenly influx
increase. The light is so to shine that one shall
live as much in the external as if not taught that
the kingdom is "within;" for the true Christian-
ity is social, although always developing from
within outward, guided by the divine light, not
by outward conditions.

When we come to the application of this prin-
ciple to our life today we realize that the times
have again changed. We have moved forward
to the age when a new light is shining, when more
truly than ever before each and every man may
lift his mind into the light of heaven and receive
wisdom for the occasion. We have grown too
into more intimate knowledge of that region of
man's nature in which he is able to cooperate with
the living, present inflow of divine power. We
now see that since the principle of the inward
light is universal, applicable in all times and
places, the guidance for today is as real as the
record of human experiences of its presence in
the past. The law enunciated in its inner form
in the sermon on the mount is still our law, and

The Inward Light 317

we have not departed from the needs and de-
mands of that sermon. But the wisdom for us
is discoverable in the present leadings which dis-
close divine wisdom in a new light according to
the conditions of the inner life of each of us
today. For the social order has changed, and
we as individuals have other needs under new
circumstances. The question is, Are we able as
individuals to apply the sermon on the mount
to our requirements so that we seek the kingdom
of God as a living divine order amidst new con-
ditions? Are we able to live by the divine light
as real for us today, not as if borrowed from the
past in mere terms of the past? Do we realize
that in deepest truth a new heaven and a new
earth are being established?

At first thought this emphasis on the present
seems to be an exaltation of the individual man,
as if we were estimating his own present feel-
ings above the commandments. Yet we do not
raise this doubt when it is a question of the con-
tinued existence of nature and of human life.
Life as it passes for us today is far more real
than our thought of life in the time of Moses.
Our conscious experience is always most real in
the present moment, however much we may draw
upon our past. One's love for a friend is still
real if true and expressive today. At any mo-
ment one's real self is a summary of all the in-

318 The Open Vision

tellectual tendencies and the affections which
have survived the years that have gone. For bet-
ter or worse each of us lives by what has thus
endured. We do not live by what we were.
Some of our tendencies have run out. Some of
our affections have waned. Our life fades into
mere history as we look back. The future which
we anticipate will be in some measure different
from our anticipations. What just now avails
is what we love most, is our present realization of
the divine love and wisdom as living, dynamic,
real.

The human self as it exists today is a direct
clue. We receive the divine love from an in-
finite source, yet only so much of that love is
intimately real as we can respond to and live
by as if it were our own. We are open by influx
to the divine wisdom, yet only so much of its in-
finitude of truths is real for us as we can assimi-
late in active thought as our own. The divine
light shines within us in its constancy in order to
lead us without break from reality to reality, the
living present always being the most real. "For
with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light
shall we see light."

As truly as the pillar of cloud advanced for the
Hebrews when they ought to move forward, in
specific adaptation to those far-off and very
crude times, so does the divine light shine to-

The Inward Light 319

day in direct application to its needs and condi-
tions. The individual feelings and thoughts of
the person seeking the direct guidance today cor-
respond to the external signs of old. The law
is still "written in all our members." It is still
true that "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path." The sanctuary is
in our own heart accompanied by conditions
which we may learn to understand, if we regard
the living word today as real, revealed anew in
the light of our age.

It is of course impossible to state the situation
apart from our human tendency to confuse the
divine light with personal sentiments. Only
through experience, guided by constant reference
to the heavenly standard may we learn to know
the true light. There is no personal feeling to
save us in advance from all mistakes. The test
of divine truth is the test of reality, reason, and
experience. The divine light is precisely that
principle which guides us despite our errors and
wanderings, that we may learn through these
wanderings the way to spiritual wisdom. We
may lift all our problems and needs into heavenly
light for guidance. We may test all knowledge
by that light.

What then is this rule of life in brief? That
in the divine providence there is a pathway of the
soul different in some measure for each of us

320 The Open Vision

yet alike in other respects, so nearly the same for
all that the sermon on the mount is the universal
clue. That each has a purpose to fulfill, and
that this purpose will be made apparent from
time to time according to our needs. That a
living divine impetus is active in our inmost self-
hood, ready to give us leadings hour by hour.
That there is a way to penetrate through any
possible darkness to the heavenly light. That
there is a way to solve every problem, a light
for every occasion, including those occasions that
pertain to our ordinary life in the world.

What shall one do to find the divine light, to
know and follow it? When you have a plan
of action under consideration, put it upon the
altar of thought to see if it be burned away, al-
lowing time for the reactions of your own bet-
ter nature. When you have a problem of daily
conduct to solve, turn first to the secret place of
the divine light and pray for guidance. When
eager for spiritual truth, remember that a new
light is shining, that there is an "inner dictate"
by which all may be led: leave all externalities
and formal statements and lay your needs before
the Father "who seeth in secret" as truly today
as at any time in the hallowed past. In any need
that may arise follow the same course. Turn
first to the direct source of light, wherever you
may look later. Give intuition a free opportun-

The Inward Light 321

■ ■

ity before you begin to seek advice, discuss mat-
ters, or examine external authorities. Then gain
the needed contrast by seeking the best light you
can find elsewhere. If the inner clue leads you
to the Bible which, as if by chance you open at
the "right place," follow the clue. Be guided
first and last by the divine light and return to
it if you lose touch with its guidances.

When people come and ask you to engage in
this or that enterprise, pause to see if the pro-
posed plan meet with the inward response of your
higher nature. When exponents of doctrines
urge their beliefs upon you, take the teachings in
question under advisement to see what present
spiritual life, if any, they have in them. When
in doubt whether to proceed in your affairs as
you have hitherto lived, pause to await a new
impetus, favorable or unfavorable, as the case
may be. Put essential matters and creeds to the
test to see if they still bespeak the authority of
the spiritual life today. If no longer able to
give yourself with spontaneity to your work,
test this unresponsiveness and seek new clues to
the spontaneously true and real. In the absence
of direct leadings for the conduct of the hour, or
checks to action in the name of conscience, pro-
ceed as you have until brought to a stand-still.
Seek anew the kingdom of God, that what is
needed for its expression may be added.

322 The Open Vision

We note also that the law as stated for the in-
ner life comes not to destroy but to fulfill. We
are not bidden to throw away older teachings
because they are external in form. We are not
called on to renounce approved social obser-
vances or even the world. A new heavenly
light now casts its added glow on all that we
possessed before, and we view the entire field of
human activity by the aid of its superior illumin-
ation. The light may at first be a mere "gleam of
darkness," but well may we pray to have a gleam
of genuinely living light increase, in contrast
with borrowed light or merely historical author-
ity. The "inner dictate" may seem but feeble
and indistinct, but let it be heard with reverence.

To believe in the inward light is not to be vague,
not to listen at random. One brings to the silent
hour the best that one has to give, in quest of
the highest. One turns to the secret place to
learn the divine wisdom, to know the divine pur-
pose and realize it; not to enter into self, or to
exalt personal experience. The light that comes
is measured by the quest for it, by the capacity
of the lamp as at present trimmed and kept burn-
ing. The divine love that inflows cannot, or
rather does not, penetrate more effectively un-
til there is increased outflow through greater love
for one's fellows. The inward light is the guide
to cooperation with divine wisdom, not to mere
receptivity.

The Inward Light 323

■ — » — i ■ ' — — — — — i i

The law is complete as a whole -and in every
detail. If aware of it by means of the inner
dictate, instead of by mere reference to author-
ity, you have a standard by which to measure or
test every element of experience in daily life.
The simple rule is, Be true to the inward light
as a living standard. Expect all the experiences
that normally belong to spiritual beings dwelling
even here and now in the spiritual world.

Under the changed conditions of our time, I
repeat, a new light is shining. This new light
does not guide us to a man in the flesh, or to a
tabernacle touched by a cloud. It sends us to
the same God, the same interior kingdom, but
it supplies the new clue for the new age, you can-
not read it aright in any age that has gone before.
The movement of enlightened thought is from
within outward. Therefore first elevate your
mind into its heavenly light, pray that your inner
eye may be opened, your inner ear made recep-
tive, that you may begin from the direct source
of all true illumination. You may then turn to
history and to the Bible as the open Book of Life,
and read by reference to the living word discerni-
ble within the heart.

This is plainly what illumination means in the
rational sense. We need not put the possibility
far from us. We may see "in a glass darkly"
at first, but later "face to face." The great

324 The Open Vision

thought is that all light is one, from a single
source, the same light which has ever quickened
every man born into the world. We may well
look for greater manifestations of this light as
clues to the right social life for the day. We may
well endeavor to be true to the living Word
"written in all our members."

"The entrance of thy words giveth light."
"Ye are the light of the world. Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven." The inward light in this its larger or
social sense becomes our guide when we have
heard anew those marvellous words of old: "I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light
of life."

XXII

POSITIVE VALUES

We have been guided in the foregoing inter-
pretations of the inner life by a certain view of
the human spirit. By no means denying that the
spirit is limited by mental life in general, and that
the mind in turn is limited by the brain, we have
nevertheless seen that there is much more to be
said about the spirit than can be adequately stated
when we have acknowledged such relatedness to
the full. The brain is an instrument for the for-
mation and preservation of habits, and the mind
tends to function in the ways which these habits
permit. In its own freer field the mind readily
acquires regular modes of activity, too, so that
automatisms play a part even in the sphere of
psychical experiences of comparatively recent
origin. Our subconsciousness is a reproduction
of our conscious life, hence this deeper portion of
our mental life also participates in automatic ac-
tions. It requires acute attentiveness on our part
to keep our subconsciousness from intruding and
projecting thoughts or "messages," although in
our conscious selfhood we have every reason to
avoid such inventiveness. Yet we might overdo

325

326 The Open Vision

the hypothesis that our subconsciousness produces
psychical experience. For we need constantly
to remind ourselves that every effect has a cause,
and that people develop interests in psychical ex-
perience in the first place because of spontaneous
impressions or guidances; hence that psychical
experiences cannot be explained away as sheer
cogitations of our own inner life.

Our view of the human spirit turns upon the
discovery of intuitive powers whose existence
must be frankly acknowledged, whatever we may
believe concerning the objective reality of psy-
chical phenomena. There is much more to be
said in behalf of the spirit than is told by conven-
tional psychology, with its fascination for mere
sense-processes. Our knowledge of the natural
world begins indeed through the presentations of
our senses. We are creatures of instinct, emo-
tion, bodily activities centering about earthly de-
sires, and thoughts tending to foster self-love and
love of the world. All this is true so far as it
reaches. But we have vestiges at least of higher
instincts than those of the mere body. We have
not lost all our sensitivity to inner impressions.
If we are at times creatures of moods and the
duality of self, we also have higher moments of
consciousness, and we are not limited by sheer in-
ferences based on physical facts. Mental influ-
ences in various forms relate us to people near us

Positive Values 327

in type. There is thought-interchange to some
extent. We receive direct impressions of char-
acter, we have feelings "in the bones" which come
true, we have premonitions and leadings which
may be trusted. No account of the human spirit
is acceptable which does not faithfully describe
these inner experiences. By implication the hu-
man spirit is as extensive and varied as all these
experiences indicate. The profound considera-
tion is that the operations of this intuitive phase
of our nature imply the ability of the spirit to
function independently of matter. That is to
say, as spirits we are more directly related to one
another than by means of the brain with its pow-
ers of expression through audible speech, hand-
writing, gestures, facial changes, and the like.

We have seen that to make ready to interpret
psychical experiences we need to distinguish be-
tween external phenomena, such as the operation
of a board or pencil; and inner phenomena, that
is, mental impressions, conscious and subcon-
scious. We need also to distinguish between in-
ward impressions and auditory or visual illusions,
since the real question is, What actually takes
place in the human spirit? Having pressed the
hypothesis of illusions as far as it can be carried,
we still have to do with inward experiences which
are real for the one who participates in them.

Pressing this contrast still further, we have

328 The Open Vision

■

found that the intelligible clue is found, not by-
putting the conscious self over against the sub-
conscious; but by discriminating between out-
ward and inward mental states. Thus, for ex-
ample, there is an external memory, with its man-
ifold associations pertaining to our life in the
outer world. But there is also an internal mem-
ory connected with character, our real motives
and interests, beliefs and affections, the events
we have lived through which deeply influenced us.
We share the items of our external selfhood to a
large extent with our fellowmen in the ordinary
routine of life. We pass current in the world for
what the outer self appears to be. Meanwhile,
we well know that what we are in deepest truth is
what the inner life discloses, with its actual at-
tainments, limitations, attitudes, whatever the ex-
ternal appearances may be. A few genuine
friends with whom we are in close affinity know
this inner self in some degree, but how much more
there is which no friend knows ! This is the self
or character which will survive the transition
called death. It is the self which attracts spir-
itual guidance. Spiritually, we are always
judged and helped by what we are, not by what
we appear to be.

Since it is the spirit in its interior life which
attracts experiences needed for growth and self-
mastery, the guidances which are vouchsafed us

Positive Values 329

correspond with the spirit's state of development.
There is an impetus or tendency, let us say, stead-
ily to bring to us as spirits whatever we most need
that we may live our life in the world, do our spe-
cific work, and meet the opportunities which can
best be met while we live this earth-life. We
need not go out to seek the conditions. What is
for us in the divine love and wisdom is already
tending toward us, and will come when we are
ready. Our part is to welcome what is brought
by this inward guidance, in firm faith that the
power, the wisdom, the love will be given us to
achieve, to be obedient, and to serve. What
comes may not be what we desire, for it will call
for victory over self-will and love of the world;
but it will be what we need. For what comes will
be adapted to the point we have attained in the
age-long struggle between spirit and matter, the
inner man and the outer, God and self.

Yet we may and should seek to put our spirits
into the right attitude to test all matters we do
not understand. For the inner life is the sanctu-
ary of the spirit, the place of the shining of that
inward light which illumines the pathway of the
soul. When spontaneous illuminations have
come, for instance, at four in the morning, and we
have learned the conditions to some degree, we
may invite those conditions and so depend more
and more upon guidances coming in the fitness

330 The Open Vision

of time. However faint the light shining in our
spirits, it is the same in kind with that which has
guided the great seers of the ages that have gone,
the same in kind with the light which we find in
the Scriptures. Therefore we may believe in it
wholly, realizing that it is part of the eternal rea-
son which discloses divine truth to men. In fact,
this light is "the spirit of truth" which leads into
all truth, the spirit of the Comforter, the living
Christ. The characteristic of its disclosures is
that it comes with authority, with power; is not
dependent on mere facts and mere inferences.

The great difference in the attitude which this
guidance quickens in us and the one we are led
to adopt while investigating psychical phenomena
is that while the inward light yields reality with
great clearness and its guidances inspire implicit
obedience, the investigator's spirit is full of cau-
tion, alert to suggest alternative explanations and
to raise doubts. I must believe in guidance if I
would be true to myself. I am free to question
psychical experiences save so far as guidance
leads me to see their rationale.

For example, long experience in these matters
may have taught me that it is possible to receive
inner confirmation of whatever I should believe.
Thus I may have received on occasion a single
sentence from some one near me in spiritual pres-
ence, coming with such distinctness, reality, and

Positive Values 331

power that I could not doubt it. Hence I may
have come to see that for me at least the way to
receive a genuine message is to receive it directly
by inward impression. Hence I may have grown
to be very sceptical concerning long messages,
since experience has taught me that ( 1 ) it is dif-
ficult for the communicating spirit to convey the
exact words for any length of time, and (2) after
a few minutes the mind of the recipient tends to
enlarge upon the original words and hence depart
further from the actual message. The message
as developed at length out of the pictographic
process might indeed be mostly genuine. For all
one can positively say to the contrary an autom-
atist might receive fairly accurate messages with-
out limit. But narrowing matters down to the
minimum which simply must be believed as gen-
uine, word for word, despite the acutest scepti-
cism, one is bound to express utmost faith in guid-
ance coming in the form of a short message.

To be sure, one might be led in a secondary
way to investigate psychical phenomena and their
associates, one might observe people experiment-
ing with the ouija board or using the pencil, and
one might read books such as "Living Waters,"
"The New Revelation," or "The Hill of Vision"
to see whither all these things tend, and to dis-
criminate according to such principles as those
laid down in the foregoing pages. But, plainly,

332 The Open Vision

one cannot step back, one cannot lower the stand-
ard, and one is bound to be as critical as the sheer
unbeliever whenever guidance permits. The re-
sult is a growing conviction in the power and per-
suasiveness of guidance over and above the fluctu-
ating factor of the intellect, with its sceptical
processes and relativities. For our intellects are
too much influenced by conventional education
and externals, by such doctrines as religious edu-
cation has imposed upon us. The spirit, when
acting intuitively and freely, is interior to all this.
Hence one comes to see the difference between
psychical experience as the intellect regards it and
such experience as it is illumined by the spirit.

Again, experience may narrow down the situ-
ation for me still further, and I may not for a
long period receive even a single sentence from
a mind beyond my own. I may in fact be merely
aware of a presence with me from time to time,
some one who seems commissioned to aid me in
the work I am doing, as an accomplished artist
might stand near a pupil with interest or ap-
proval, but never uttering a word unless the nov-
ice should make a false stroke. The friend in
the spirit might aid me to keep my mind in the
light, and indicate the way to put my work into
the light in order that I should see its defects for
myself; and yet never in the least degree exert
any influence to control my will or my thought.

Positive Values 333

Further, he might prompt various friends in the
flesh to bring me the books which I should read to
make my intellectual investigations complete, and
these friends might bring me what I need without
being in the least degree aware that they were
participating in my work. In fact, one of the
profoundest reasons for believing in guidance is
seen in the fact of minds cooperating independ-
ently to carry on a work without knowing that
they are making such contributions.

If for the sake of the hypothesis we should en-
deavor to explain all the activities of the inner
selfhood on the basis of the self alone, as if there
were no communion with minds either in the flesh
or beyond the flesh, we would still have on our
hands for explanation the profound fact of the
working together of events toward a common end.
This "working of all things together" has always
been one of the facts which has led people to be-
lieve in guidance. Some life or wisdom is behind
the several lines of activity. The mere operation
of intuition in general seems insufficient to ac-
count for this united action. Nor does it seem
possible to explain the whole relationship on the
basis of unconscious telepathy between minds in
the flesh. The more plausible explanation is that
we are open in spirit both to friends in the flesh
and to those beyond it. When engaged in a
piece of work requiring guidance on the future

334 The Open Vision

life, we are more likely to receive it from the spir-
itual world. When facing moral issues demand-
ing self-mastery we are more likely to walk with
God alone.

Whether or not we believe that our guidances
come in part through friends in the spirit, we
seem bound therefore to hold that our guidances
belong together, and that they imply a higher
wisdom than our own. This conviction leads to
very direct and inspiring belief in the presence
of God through love and wisdom. It reinforces
the idea of the divine providence. It strengthens
belief in individuality and a distinct purpose for
each of us. Thus we once more place emphasis
on primary considerations, less concerned to dis-
cover the conditions through which the divine
life is mediated to us. Nevertheless, we have a
much clearer way of thinking about those condi-
tions, with every reason to cultivate intuition, to
observe the comings and goings of spontaneous
impressions, especially the insights which come
like a flash. We have a more definite idea where
our illuminating clues come from, and we see the
difference between these gleams from the inward
light and ordinary psychical messages.

To accept the idea of guidances belonging to-
gether and possibly coming in part through
friends in the spiritual word is, however, to raise
the old question of the relationship between the

Positive Values 335

world of time and the world in which time as we
are aware of it is unknown. What shall we say
about guidances which anticipate experience and
predictions which come true? Apparently, se-
quences of events are seen from the spiritual
world, and these sequences seem to correspond
in a measure with the succession of events
in time as we know them. Thus one may
receive a guidance in advance of experience
to the effect that a journey covering months
will be successful and without accident; for
example, a voyage across the dangerous seas
and into the war-zone, with all the contingencies
due to the menacing presence of submarines and
bombing planes. Then guidances may come
from stage to stage of the journey to indicate
when it is right to proceed or to wait, in so far
as military regulations permit of choice. Again,
premonitions of danger may come, and one may
postpone a journey. Or perchance the premoni-
tion may be fulfilled, in the case of an individual
who persists in making a journey despite an im-
pression not to do so or a "feeling" that it will
end fatally. In any event there appears to be a
fixed sequence into which we may plunge or in
which we may refuse to participate.

Many people assure us that they have had im-
pressions of this kind. Here, for example, is a
man about to start on a long railway journey

336 The Open Vision

and who is deterred for a day by a premonition
that there is to be an accident. Later he learns
that the train on which he would have journeyed
met with an accident in which a number of people
in the rear sleeper which he would have taken
were killed. The deterring impression came
twenty-four hours before the accident.

Here is another man who, while travelling on
an express train going at a high rate of speed,
receives an impression to change his seat to an-
other part of the car, and on the other side ; and
so his life is saved in an accident occurring a
while later in which the side of the car on which
he had been sitting was torn off. Returning
home on the following day and before he tells
any one of his escape, his sister tells him that two
evenings before a guidance came to her, most
unexpectedly, to pray for her brother, since he
would be in danger the next day. This man is
greatly impressed by this two-fold evidence of
guidance. He is a Quaker, hence habitually a
believer in guidance, and he has many interesting
incidents to tell of more than half a century of
experiences indicating that all guidances belong
together in the divine purpose.

In the case of premonitions of danger in which
people have foreseen their death, it is of course
plausible to say that the persons in question have
literally but unconsciously fulfilled the predic-

Positive Values 337

tions because they believed in them. But this
explanation does not account for instances in
which people have tried their best to avoid all dan-
gerous circumstances, so as not to realize the pre-
diction ; and yet, despite all changes of plan, have
unwittingly put themselves into the danger which
they sought to avoid. Nor does it account for
premonitions coming to soldiers of the exact cir-
cumstances of their death, a few days later, con-
ditions which they would have avoided if possi-
ble, but which they were compelled by military
orders to realize.

The easiest assumption to make is that predes-
tination is true, hence that no effort on one's part
will make the slightest difference. Belief in
"destiny" is indeed widespread among people
who have had premonitions. Fatalism is readily
fostered in war-time, when everybody seems
bound down to a fixed series of events, as if their
lives were necessary products of events that have
gone before.

No belief more sharply conflicts with our moral
convictions, however, than the idea of fatalism as
the universal law of human life. Nothing comes
to us with greater assurance from the spiritual
world than the statement that we are free, hence
that predestination is untrue. The conclusion
that every event is predetermined seems hasty
indeed. The facts of guidance do not compel us

338 The Open Vision

to believe that we are forewarned of "the inevi-
table." They do not give us information con-
cerning what is necessary -or fate-driven, but what
is probable — if we follow the guidance from stage
to stage. One is not bound to obey. Indeed
some of us have come to know guidance by con-
trast with instances of it which we have wilfully
disregarded. Guidance reveals wisdom, not
necessity. It is sometimes accompanied by sen-
tences containing exact dates, with the month and
day, and sometimes not. Some of the precise
predictions are fulfilled in point of time, others
are not. Plainly, the element of time depends on
mundane events which may develop quickly or
slowly according to conditions not yet seen. All
we need infer, so far as the perception of our
spirit-friends is concerned, is that there is fore-
sight of a sequence presently to be realized
through what we call "time," with all its contin-
gencies and delays. The sequence of events may
indeed seem sure, that is, the gathering of forces
to produce a certain result. But a prediction in
point of time is hazardous.

Granted foresight of conditions taking shape
to produce events about to occur in the world of
time, a prophecy might be made which we could
identify with subsequent historical events. Thus
the statements in "The Seven Purposes" concern-
ing perilous "drives" during the last year of the

Positive Values 339

war become intelligible. Thus one might accept
the predictions of "The Hill of Vision" made
three years before the war began, no precise dates
being then hazarded. Only a little more diffi-
cult would be the exact prediction that the war
would end August 25th, 1918, a prophecy re-
ceived several months before that date. For this
date need not be taken too seriously, and it will
always be matter of question whether the tide
actually turned at that time. The truth in such
predictions becomes intelligible to us when we
first consider more definitely how earthly events
may be foreseen under the very different condi-
tions of the spiritual world.1

It is essential to bear constantly in mind that
the spiritual world affords a vision of causes in
operation before their effects are seen in this
world. This vision includes not only the activity
of beings in that world whose powers may be
far greater than ours, but insight into the real
motives and plans, however secret, of people in
this world, notably those who are stealthily mak-
ng ready to plunge the world into a great war.
But if the assembling of hostile forces is thus ap-
parent, the gathering of constructive forces must
be no less plain. Thus there is undoubtedly a

i Elsewhere I have argued, and still believe, that the tide began
to turn July 15, when the German offensive was halted on the
Champagne front; see "On the Threshold of the Spiritual World,".
Chap. III.

340 The Open Vision

complete view of all the human elements involved
n the vast operation, hence definite statements are
possible. Then too we need to remind ourselves
that many contests are seen as settled from the
spiritual point of view long before their conse-
quences in the realm of effects have been wrought
out to the end.

Possibly, we might illustrate by such observa-
tions and predictions as may come within our
power when, standing upon a mountain top over-
looking a wide stretch of country, with plains and
valleys, we see gathering in the far distance a
forthcoming thunder-storm. Knowing the coun-
try well, we may be able to predict that the storm
will follow the course of a river winding seaward
through the level country, and we might send
telephonic messages to inhabitants in the valley
along the river warning them of the approaching
storm. Then, the storm having passed our vant-
age-point, we might see the clear sky above the
region where it originated, and inform the people
along the river, still in the throes of the storm,
that it will presently come to an end. We might
indeed undertake to tell the precise time when
the storm will cease, and the prediction might
come true. But the storm might spend itself less
quickly than we anticipated, and it might return
over its course in part. Thus there might be
phases of the storm which we could not foretell,

Positive Values 341

despite the fact that from the point of view of
its origin its forces might seem well spent.

Making allowances for differences in the forces
in question, this seems to be the kind of predic-
tions we have to consider in endeavoring to ac-
count for the accuracies amidst the variations in
the case of the precise statement that the war
would end August 25, 1918. The editor of
"The Hill of Vision'* adduces military evidence
to show that this date could be regarded as the
time when the tide turned. In the forecast from
the spiritual world it was plain that the forces in
operation would reach their climax after a certain
period of struggle which could be identified with
the conditions of the war as then in operation on
earth. With sure vision of all the forces in ac-
tion, the communicating spirit might venture to
make an exact prophecy. But the precise state-
ment concerning the point of time would be sub-
ject to contingencies.

The communicating spirit states the general
principle as follows: "We have this difficulty,
that though we control spiritual forces which
manifest themselves in Matter, yet we are often
unconscious of the spiritless movements of Mat-
ter after the withdrawal of the spiritual work in
time." l In the profoundest sentence in the
whole book, the illuminating statement is made

i "The Hill of Vision," p. 38.

342 The Open Vision

that time is "the ratio of the resistance of Matter
to the interpenetration of the Spirit." That is
to say, the whole struggle in process here on earth
is a contest between Matter and Spirit, Dark-
ness and Light, Self and God. In the spiritual
world the struggle is seen from the vantage-point
of Spirit, while we see it mostly in the light of
the effects produced on Matter. From above,
the discerning eye sees that Spirit has accom-
plished its work, even before the storm has sub-
sided on earth. Hence the prophecies are given
from the point of view of decisive causes, and
sometimes they are made so precise that the ele-
ment of time is included. But not all the after-
effects in the realm of matter are foreseen by
any means. Hence the prophecies may fall
short in point of time: we should never rely on
them absolutely. We, on the other hand, ob-
serve the events from the point of view of the
resistance offered by matter, and we are pain-
fully aware of the after-effects.

For practical purposes, therefore, it is wiser
for us to dwell on the powers at work to bring
about changes, and seek guidance that we may
contribute our part in line with the Spirit. It
is seldom given us to know the times and sea-
sons. Ordinarily it is better that we should not
know. There is every reason why we should
live more and more in the realm of causes, ex-

Positive Values 343

iii hi I——— !

tending our thought to include the activities of
the spiritual world. We do not see all the ele-
ments involved. We are not told all that we
cannot see. We are left to develop from the
point thus far attained, with every reason for
making the best use of such wisdom as may be
given us. Essential events belong together in
the divine purpose, that is the chief considera-
tion. That purpose steadily goes forth to its
realization. We may aid by transferring our
allegiance from self to that purpose, from out-
ward conditions to the Life which operates
through them.

Our spirits sometimes act quickly and discern
ends far in advance of realization. Intellectually
speaking we move far more slowly, analyzing,
raising objections, assimilating ideas against
which we rebelled at first, and finally arriving at
convictions. Our bodies move more moderately
still, for matter is often unyielding. To under-
stand all the conditions of life, we need to take
account of these three differing rates of speed.
In spirit we seem to achieve the goal at once.
We never expect to fail again. We expect to
be strong in faith, at peace within, prompt and
ardent in service without. Time scarcely exists
for us. But we reckon ill if we leave the con-
ventionalizing intellect out of account, if we for-
get self-love, habit, and our dependence on the

344 The Open Vision

body. Our earth-life is given us for the working
out of this complex problem. There is wisdom
for each level of experience, each stage of the
journey.

So too the world moves at varying rates of
speed, with groups on groups of people banded
according to their affinities. If we could look
forth over the world "under the guise of eternity,"
as Spinoza would say, we should see people mov-
ing and being moved in groups. Our point of
view would be that of motives or prevailing loves
in the age-long processes leading to ends. Both
time and space would drop out of consideration
as we now know them. Instead, there would be
outward appearances corresponding to real in-
ward conditions; we should see "things as they
are," see them "whole" in clear light. Elemen-
tary indeed would seem this mundane lif e in com-
parison. Yet this life would appear as the nat-
ural training ground of the soul. It would seem
less and less a mere conflict between forces, more
and more intimately a field of expression for the
eternal verities of the Spirit. For the darknesses
would steadily disappear in the presence of the
true Light. The errors would be overcome by
the universalizing Truth. We would place less
emphasis on the waywardnesses of men, more on
the guidances which are ever at hand to disclose
the Way. History too would seem in a measure

Positive Values 345

less important, in the quickening vision of the all-
encompassing Life.

If any one prefers to regard all the thoughts
and impressions that come to us as arising solely
within our minds, as results of contact with the
natural world through the physical senses, and to
deny relationship with another world or with the
mind of God, nothing further need be said.
Sooner or later all who think are likely to try this
hypothesis for a time, and it is profitable to do
so. But eventually we have to reckon with the
fact that, whether we like it or not, the human
mind discloses experiences of other types calling
for adequate explanation. Thus the present
widespread interest in psychical matters has come
about through dissatisfaction with the teachings
of the churches and the physical sciences. It
places too great a burden upon the human spirit
conceived as a closed and isolated entity, if we
try to explain away all psychical experiences as
sheer illusions or delusions due to disordered
bodily states and subjective fancies.

Again, others may still prefer to remain within
the faithful ranks of those who recognize no re-
ligious experiences save the ones generated in us
through acceptance of the true doctrines and the
authorized sacraments of the church to which they
belong. Once more, there is no objection to be
raised, if this be the soul's sincerest guidance.

346 The Open Vision

1 ■ «

One sees why the authorities within the Church
look with suspicion upon the whole psychical
movement. To entertain even the hypothesis
that people may receive direct guidance from
God, may be regenerated by immediate influences
from the spiritual world, or commune with "the
dead" as if they were alive, is to admit a possi-
bility that might jeopardize the whole institu-
tion. Hence the Church is likely to remain our
most conservative organization. Meanwhile, the
dissatisfied are sure to look for light elsewhere.

Or, one might adopt the leadings of the fore-
going chapters in so far as they point to Quimby's
theory, with its later variations, Mental Science
and the New Thought. This would be to believe
most heartily in intuition, telepathy, and the
power of the spirit to convey direct healing in-
fluences to other spirits in the flesh; while object-
ing to the idea that such speech also includes the
receiving of messages as spiritualists believe in
them. It might involve an idea of the nearness
of the spiritual world and it might not. But for
the most part it would mean emphasis on the
practical realization of the power of the Spirit in
daily life for the sake of overcoming disease,
poverty, and other adverse conditions* The chief
objection to psychical experiences of a spiritist
nature would be on the ground that people are
unbalanced by them. But one might in turn ob-

Positive Values 347

' > ' ' ' I. <

ject to the conventional New-Thought position
on the ground that it is one's privilege to help
people through the thickets of the psychical world
into the light of the spiritual life.

Or, again, one might hold that all these psychi-
cal matters were settled a hundred and fifty
years ago by the disclosures or revelations of Swe-
denborg. That is to say, all psychical experi-
ences are "dangerous," it is not given to us to re-
ceive either help or wisdom from spirits ; and we
should judge all such matters on the basis of the
authoritative doctrines given in books like
"Heaven and Hell." In such books, indeed, one
finds the most complete view of the other world
ever given to man. Naturally, Swedenborg is
the one writer in all history with whom one would
reckon seriously, if one were to press all explana-
tions of the relationship of the two worlds to their
rational limit. But there might be another way
to make this estimate than merely to accept
Swedenborg as authority without testing his
teachings through appeal to experience and the
best ideas set forth in recent communications.
To take the Swedish seer in entire earnestness
would be to look to inner experience to see how
far his lead may be followed. For in our day
the pursuit of truth has ceased to be a mere ques-
tion of the comparison of doctrines. We have
moved forward to an empirical age. A new light
is shining.

348 The Open Vision

In accordance with this new light we may start
in a very different way from that of either the
former theology or spiritism in any of its guises.
The old theology assumed the existence of a
transcendent God far above the world, from
whom there once came an authoritative revela-
tion out of the air, as it were, that is, apart from
all human conditions and limitations. Hence the
churches organized in this God's name sur-
rounded man by a closed system. All that could
be known about the life after death was taught
by the churches. Immediate access to divine
sources of life and wisdom was denied. Heaven
was remote indeed. Future punishment was to
be dreaded, and fear was used as an instrument
to restrain the faithful.

Spiritism, on the hand, drew attention to al-
leged projections from the spirit-world into this,
and centered its interests upon mediumship. It
then became a question whether thought-pro-
jections or visions, messages from "controls" and
the like, were real. The present-day interest in
the ouija board is a survival of this view, that is,
that the spiritual world projects itself into this
one, and that we must discover whether the mes-
sages and visions are real, are products of our
subconsciousness, or are purely subjective ap-
pearances.

In this book we have been pleading for a radi-

Positive Values 349

cally different conception of the whole field,
namely, that in so far as men have possessed the
open vision they have actually seen realities,
angels and spirits in the spiritual world itself;
hence that the open vision, not spirit-projections,
yields our standard. With this conception before
us, we have sought to direct attention to the spir-
itual powers which every man possesses now,
powers which might be developed through use as
Quimby, for example, developed them ; or as they
grew into fulness of activity in the case of Swe-
denborg.

Granted this point of view, we may make ready
to understand the life after death and the spirit-
ual world by learning all we can about the hu-
man spirit as it functions in this world. We
learn, for example, that the spirit is the real basis
of character, the ground of our prevailing love,
the centre of our utmost thoughts and of the at-
tractions or affinities of our truest friendships.
We learn that it has a memory of its own which
will survive, a "spiritual body" which really cor-
responds with the spirit's attainments; and that
death is a dropping off of externals, with the out-
ward memories and associates of this life. Better
still, we learn that by direct influx from the divine
life we receive wisdom and love into the under-
standing and the will according to our need, our
responsiveness, and the use we make of this in-
fluent guidance.

350 The Open Vision

Thus thinking about our life in the natural
world in terms of spiritual law under clearly de-
finable conditions, we may in constructive
thought trace the pathway of the spirit into the
other world. We may see the spirit, "clothed
in its right mind," coming to itself in accordance
with the prevailing love, and in a sphere of new
influences and associates intimately related by
spiritual affinity. Time will have ceased. Space
will be no more save so far as its appearances cor-
respond with the real states of the spirit. The
natural world will be left behind save in memory
and the inward ties which bind soul to soul in
affinity, whether here or hereafter. The inward
relationships will not be broken at all, and there
will be no need of empirical proofs of "spirit re-
turn" to prove the survival of spirits who have
never been separated from us. With the laying
aside of earthly relationships our friends in the
spirit will therefore be nearer to us, not further
away. We may firmly believe this, although
never for a moment aware of a spiritual presence
and never the recipient of a message. If in addi-
tion it is given to some of us to become aware
of the endeared presence and to receive a sentence
which proves its reality ; it is for a divine purpose
in accordance with true faith, and no one has
good ground for denying the inward impression.

Thus in possession of fundamental principles

Positive Values 351

by which to think out the relationship between
the worlds, we are in a position to discern the
realities amidst manifold illusions in matters
psychical. We shall find that precisely as the
mind plays us false in its misinterpretations of
sense-phenomena and in our hasty generaliza-
tions about lif e, so in the psychical region the mind
readily generates much out of a little. Thus in
some of the recent literature there may be a mini-
mum of psychical reality and a great amount of
mental enlargement. Narrowing matters down
to the psychical minimum, we are led to ask,
What is its significance? No answer from the
psychical world will ever suffice to explain. Un-
less you already know yourself far better than
the typical communicating spirits know you, you
cannot tell wherein they are right. And if you
know yourself so well as this you have no need of
merely psychical guidance; for you have learned
the greatest of truths concerning the human
spirit, namely, that it is taught from within by
the divine wisdom, that man possesses no life or
power, wisdom or love purely his own; but that
he shares the divine goodness according to need.
Truly to grasp this greatest of truths is to see
the place and yet the limitations of personal or
subjective experiences, hence to be prepared to
interpret in all earnestness the experiences of the
seers. For we then in a measure enjoy spiritual

352 The Open Vision

perception, we have "vision." Without vision
they indeed "perish" who venture upon the
psychical. But we are acquiring this vision. It
may come to us whether we have read any special
books or not, since real vision, true revelation is
of the spirit: the eternal Word is hidden in the
heart.

Whether we like it or not, therefore, and de-
spite all the efforts of the churches to oppose Sir
Oliver Lodge and the other pioneers, the point
of view is before us now to be reckoned with,
namely, that there is the most intimate relation-
ship between the two worlds, and that all real
causes are spiritual. The result is a new coopera-
tive spirit pointing forward to the ideal which
Swedenborg called the Grand Man. If we
shall come to adopt that point of view we may
find in it a new social gospel, or, rather, a return
to the true Christianity of the Gospels.

THE END

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